Julian, I read your web page about the MFJ 1026 and I think you did an excellent job. I'm not sure the Miracle Whip type antenna will do a good job down in the 75/80m range - but that was insightful that the noise antenna needs to be tuned to frequency to perform well.
My 320ft one wavelength loop is my daily use antenna for regional work. But I also have a hustler 5btv vertical with 60 radials for DX work. I've gone over 6000 miles once with PSK31 with the vertical. I have the final whip on the vertical pruned just right for the noisy Mars frequency. The vertical is very poor for the regional work on this frequency because everyone else is using horizontal antennas. The vertical picks up lots of noise and maybe it will work well as the noise antenna? I have the SGC amplifier's FAN kit on back order and when it comes in, they'll ship the fan kit along with a new MFJ 1026. (Hey, I gotta save on the shipping!) Since I went on-line to the internet around 15 years ago, I decided to maintain anonymity. It prevents my home from being robbed based on personal information I might accidentally share. And, if I make an ass of myself from time to time - something I am skilled at - well at least my real name isn't associated with it :) :) I hold an Amateur Extra class license, and was a VE - that is until I got promoted - lost my Fri/Sat days off and afternoon shift. We "bid" a few times each year for working hours and days off based on seniority in one's current position. So I now start work at 4AM and get the undesirable Tue/Wed as regular days off. (Tue/Wed means no lines in the stores when shopping) But it is not forever. Things will eventually improve. Maybe I've been a bit rough on the hardware mods from Elecraft. It is a good thing to be able to keep up with improvements. I accidentally melted some plastic inside my IC-91AD performing the MARS mod. Fortunately only I know where the damage is. When I Mars modded my IC2200H I came so close to clipping the wrong diodes - it wasn't funny. But I realized it at the last second. On other projects I've murdered components by using too much heat. High heat is a habit from when I used to chip Volkswagen engine computers. High heat won't usually hurt the one surface mounted chip I had to remove, reprogram, and resolder. There was always one trace that needed far more heat than the others for a good solder connection - don't know why. Loved to use 666 degrees F on my soldering iron. And if perchance it might kill a chip, I always had a few new spare chips around. I've built a few simple things like a voltage divider attenuator circuit, but I don't really trust myself with a soldering iron (except on VW engine computers - I only ruined one VW computer) I currently own an ICOM 746Pro. Universal Radio did the Mars mod for me. I purchased it in early 2008. I believe I have avoided all the early production unit problems like backlights burning out and TX quitting. I have the TX audio bass and treble adjusted so well I get unsolicited compliments on my audio. People ask what microphone I am using and can't believe it when I say its the stock Icom microphone. I got the COMPressor adjusted so I cut through the Mars Freq noise and often get compliments on my "good signal" - and "Howard's really improved his station - he sounds good" - though one person doesn't like the sound of the compressor-speech. Well some of those complements might also be from extending my L-Dipole to a 1-Wavelength-loop. It's only on EasyPal nets that I just can't seem to XMT pictures reliably - and it turns out that all the people who XMT well - they are using 500 or 600 watt amplifiers - this must be a requirement for EasyPal given our current band conditions. Now I have an amplifier. So the problem left is just RX noise. noise noise noise. Maybe a better radio will solve it? I'm not sure. I'm going to try the MFJ 1026. I find it rather undesirable to buy a radio that's still undergoing hardware mods/improvements. Though I think that after a year or two there should not be any major hardware problems left. Well, it has been fun entertaining you the past few days. Perhaps I'll join the K3 owners' club in the near future. Howard -- View this message in context: http://n2.nabble.com/K3-eHam-review-after-2%2B-years-tp3202931p3215333.html Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ______________________________________________________________ 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
