Oversight on my part, Robert. I've had KX-Line on the brain all year because of the KX2 release.
In fact, Field Day is why Elecraft exists, and the K2 was the rig Eric and I dreamed up to improve our FD experience. We're still tweaking things nearly 20 years later :) 73, Wayne N6KR On Jun 24, 2016, at 6:57 PM, Robert G Strickland <[email protected]> wrote: > Alas, no mention of the K2, my FD go to radio. This is understandable, and no > criticism is meant. The K2 is yesterday's radio, while the KX2/3 are for > today and tomorrow. That said, it's fun to run up a lot of CW q's on the > "old" K2 while other operators in the group are using up-to-date Japanese > radios and struggling with SSB. > > ...robert > > On 06/25/2016 00:16, Wayne Burdick wrote: >> Here are my annual tips for getting the most out of your rig at Field Day. >> (Some are Elecraft-specific--thanks for the bandwidth!) >> >> 1. BATTERY LIFE: To conserve battery life, use hunt-and-pounce rather than >> calling CQ, and use lower power output when possible. This is especially >> practical on a very quiet band, such as on 15 or 10 meters in the afternoon >> and early evening. You'll be amazed at how many stations you can work with >> one watt when these higher bands are open. >> >> - Lower power can also keep the rig cooler. (As will operating in the shade! >> At least keep the heat sink in the shade, if you can. On the KX3, the heat >> sink occupies the back edge and bottom of the enclosure. On the KX2, it's >> the right side panel.) >> >> - To reduce supply current in receive mode, use headphones rather than the >> internal speaker, and if lighting conditions permit, turn off the LCD >> backlight (MENU:BKLIGHT). >> >> - The KX2 has an amp-hour monitoring feature. Tap DISP and rotate VFO B to >> obtain this reading. To clear the AH value to zero, go into the AMP HRS menu >> entry and hold CLR. >> >> - The KX3 automatically switches the power amplifier to a more efficient >> setting based on the mode, supply voltage, and power setting. You can tell >> that power-saving mode is in effect by a decimal point after the 'W' in the >> power value (e.g., "5.0 W."). In SSB and audio data modes, the applicable >> level is 3.0 watts. >> >> >> 2. QRP HUNT-AND-POUNCE TIP: This type of operation can be greatly enhanced >> by using dual watch (KX2/KX3) or a sub receiver (K3/K3S). It allows you to >> keep one VFO on a station you're waiting to call, while tuning the other VFO >> to look for the next station to call. (If you beat my own 1B-Battery score >> because of this tip...guess I asked for it :) >> >> >> 3. ANTENNA SELECTION: The general rule is, "the longer and higher, the >> better," suggesting wire-in-a-tree antennas. (If you're lucky enough to have >> a portable yagi, that's even better.) >> >> - When winding antenna wire for storage, wind it in a figure-8 pattern. When >> you release the bundle later, it will spring out easily without kinks or >> tangles. >> >> - An electrically short whip will work in a pinch, but you'll typically >> realize a 5 to 15 dB improvement on both RX and TX with an an-hoc wire >> antenna. >> >> - Most Elecraft rigs have an optional internal, wide-range ATU that can tune >> random wire antennas on all or some bands. Once the antenna is set up, go >> into the ATU menu entry on each band of interest and hold CLR to clear out >> all L-network memories. You may then only have to do ATU TUNE once or twice >> per band. Data for your home antennas may be stored for up to 32 smaller >> segments on each band. >> >> - When connecting a wire directly to an ATU, avoid wire lengths that are >> multiples of a half-wave on any target band (unless you're using a half-wave >> antenna with a matching transformer at the rig). 26' and 52' (approximately) >> work well for 40-6 meters in most cases, and 52' will usually allow matching >> on 80 m as well. >> >> - You can use these same lengths for counterpoise wires, which are essential >> for low loss on transmit. Without at least one counterpoise wire, your >> transmitted signal will be an additional 10-20 dB lower, even if the ATU can >> match the antenna. >> >> >> 4. ANTENNA SPACING: If you're using more than one transmitter, try to keep >> the antennas as far apart as possible and perpendicular to each other. This >> is a good practice with all FD stations, because it can prevent receiver >> de-sensing and intermodulation distortion. If two stations unavoidably have >> their antennas in each other's near fields, you can dig into a pretty deep >> bag of tricks, including reducing preamp gain or turning on the attenuator. >> These settings are per-band on all Elecraft rigs. >> >> - KX3: Try setting MENU:RX SHFT to 8.0 rather than NOR. (The KX2 always uses >> 8 kHz shift.) >> >> >> 5. OSCILLATOR ISOLATION: The KX2 and KX3, like other radios with a >> quadrature direct-conversion architecture, use a VFO (local oscillator) >> running at or very close to the operating frequency. If you have another >> radio on the same band as the KX2 or KX3, and the antennas are close >> together, the other radio may be able to hear the rig's oscillator when >> they're both tuned close to the same frequency. >> >> To prevent this entirely, the KX3 includes an isolation amplifier that keeps >> the oscillator from radiating back through the mixer. Normally this >> amplifier is turned off to save about 15 mA of receive-mode current drain. >> To turn on the isolation amp, set MENU:RX ISO to ON. This has no effect on >> performance. >> >> The KX2 doesn't have an isolation amp, but isolation is very good when the >> preamp is on. >> >> Have fun! >> >> 73, >> Wayne >> N6KR >> >> >> >> >> >> ______________________________________________________________ >> 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 >> Message delivered to [email protected] >> > > -- > Robert G Strickland, PhD ABPH - KE2WY > [email protected] > Syracuse, New York, USA > ______________________________________________________________ > 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 > Message delivered to [email protected] ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to [email protected]
