On 4/6/2018 5:58 PM, j...@kk9a.com wrote:
I have operated from several countries using my K3S and I am never so fortunate to have a noise floor low enough use preamp 2. Most of the time preamp 1 is also off.
I've had the opposite experience. MDS of the original K3 was woefully poor above 15M, even with the preamp switched in. As luck would have it, I have a very nice ARR GAsFET 6M preamp on the shelf that I'd used in Chicago that I inserted at the RX antenna patch point; I found that it improved the MDS all the way down to 12M. I would have missed a LOT of QSOs without that preamp. Of course, like everyone else, sometimes my noise level is lower than at other times, and a solar system 500 ft from my main antenna raises it by 10 dB on 10 and 6 when the sun is hitting it.
When the K3S was introduced, I quickly replaced the Synth boards and the Transverter board to get that improved preamp, simplifying my RX antenna switching. I do find, though, that the GAsFET preamp has a slightly lower NF, so I continue to use it during the 6M season.
73, Jim K9YC ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
