I know where Steve is coming from with his reply, though you would need to "step back in time a few decades". In the 1970's I was an inveterate backpacker, going nearly every weekend into the Sierra's where you park your car at 9,000 feet altitude and climb from there often over 12,000 foot passes. My typical backpack included 4-season "expedition" sleeping bag and similar level 2-person tent. This required an extension rack on the backpack which typ weighed 60-lbs. My weekend treks were typically 16-20 miles and this is not level walking, but often onto snow covered passes (in July). The ultimate "hike was when I took the "Wonderland Trail" that circum-navigates a 113-mi trail circling Mt. Rainier. My hiking partner and I preshipped two re-supply caches to accomplish this. We crossed two glaciers on that trek.
A good friend of mine, KL3BD, made three ascents of Mt. McKinely (near 21,000 feet) carrying a 2m-HT. I talked to him a couple times on his climb. I can envision a KX3 going on such a trip some day. The point Steve is making is every extra ounce of weight is something that you must carry on your back. You want most of it to be "fuel" (i.e. food and not ballast). Taking two radios, each with a battery, is excessive on such trips. I can't even comprehend taking a 15-lb radio! OK that being said, let me address the technical issue. The KX3 is a direct conversion SDR that tunes to 54-MHz. There may be a technical upper limit on what this SDR can cover in frequency. Note the 144-148 is added via a transverter (meaning it is hetrodyned down to 50-54). I would suspect to cover 162.55 MHz would require a separate Rx converter, so it may be easier to consider a separate radio for that. Asking for the 2m transverter to include the wx band would probably involve major redesign: two-freq LO plus RF circuitry that would be tuned to 162-163 MHz. There becomes a technical/physical limit to what can be added in functionality in one radio. Providing wideband circuits to provide decent Rx sensitivity over 144-163 MHz is problematic to obtaining good performance on the primary objective of the 2m band. An example is my K3 which tunes 28-32 MHz for receiving 144-148 but does not transmit well above 146-MHz. Elecraft solved that for its own line of transverters by providing two LO freqs. to use 28-30 MHz. The fact they decided to use the 6m band as IF for 2m on the KX3 is proof they are thinking how to improve. Seriously, I would be surprised if the wx-band can be added (though I understand the wish for that). 73, Ed - KL7UW PS: Hiking now consist of hauling luggage thru airport terminals! ------------------------------ Message: 47 Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2012 07:32:45 -0800 (PST) From: Steve KC8QVO <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] KX3-2M extended receive? To: [email protected] Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Though I respect your opinion, Mike, and everyone else that shares the same sentiment, I must entirely disagree with your point about using an HT to supplement the KX3 vs. the multi-mode capability on 2m. My basis for my comments is backpacking. I ask those that are consider the multi-mode operability of the KX3 as being the sole reason wideband receive is not feasible and that an HT must be required to supplement that which the KX3 does not cover if you have ever gone backpacking. That doesn't mean a short day hike or walking a mile to a camp site for the weekend, I am talking about packing everything you need for 2 or more days covering 20+ miles. ========snipped the remainder for brevity. 73, Ed - KL7UW, WD2XSH/45 ====================================== BP40IQ 500 KHz - 10-GHz www.kl7uw.com EME: 50-1.1kw?, 144-1.4kw, 432-QRT, 1296-?, 3400-? DUBUS Magazine USA Rep [email protected] Coming Soon - "Kits made by KL7UW" ====================================== ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
