Ed, No offence but what you say below puts everything on the tilt since you say you have been using a FT-1000D, ifn´t you had it in IPO all the time you have been using the preamp. There is no two ways about it.
I do agree that the reel world performance compared to "lab" performance is two totally different things. I´m beginning to think we have something here in conjunction with the K3. As I did say before, my gut feeling is that there is something going on but I can´t put my finger on it neither I have the time available to investigate. / Jim SM2EKM --------------------------- W0SD Ed Gray wrote: > I believe the test results but the reality to me is in the real world it > does not make any difference on HF below 10 meters. > > I don't use the ATU, all resonate antenna's here. If using the > amplifier no ATU into the amplifier so that is not an issue here. > > The 4 db mentioned with the pre-amp I am sure is accurate but I can not > hear the difference and I have a nice quiet location. IMHO you can't get > a quiet rx with a pre-amp as the background is going to increase when > you turn it on. It would be fine to get more back ground if the signal > was better copy. However for me I can never remember a case where > turning on the pre-amp made it possible to copy something better than > without it other than 10 meters and up and I have a quiet location out > in the country. > My opinion is based on working all DXCC countries, 5Band WAZ, lots of > contests, operating 160-1296 and higher with about 300,000 qso's in the > log and being on several Dx-peditions. I just say this to validate I > have been blessed to be able to do a good deal of operating in the real > world. > > To me there is a limit to the improvement you can get in the real world > on an antenna when you have atmospheric and man made noise. Again I have > chased weak signal DX for a long time and I have never found a time the > pre-amp helps below 10 meters on recent vintage radios. It may help > others but it does not help me. For me it is just tiring to the ears to > listen to the extra background noise with the pre-amp on. > > For me the key point is that you can make legitimate tests that show a > difference in a test set up with test equipment but in the real world > listening on an antenna even at a very quiet location it just isn't > going to show up. > > The fact is that probably only 1% or less of hams have very quiet > locations so they just amplify man made noise when they turn on the > pre-amp. To get a benefit you need a very low noise floor and there is > a limit on HF even at the most quiet location. > > I will stick to my "GUNS" and say the pre-amp does not help me any below > 10 meters and only makes it more fatiguing > to listen to ( roughly 3-S units more background on my K3 meter) and I > am blessed with having a quieter location than I suspect 99% of the hams > have. So the bottom line I think for most if you want less noise is to > turn the pre-amp off. If it does make a difference for you(I does not > for me) it will be a very small percentage of the time so why not leave > it off 99.9% of the time if background noise is an issue for you. > > I think most of the persons having problems with listening to the K3 are > because of what I will call "pitch" or put another way what they trouble > setting it so it is what they like to listen to. Here is a real world > example. Operating at TZ6EI this past summer on six meters W7XU was > having trouble with the K3 "noise" with the six meter pre-amp. He likes > to copy a low pitch 300 hz, no more than 400 hz on cw. The background > noise was driving him "NUTS". I had him adjust the shift to lower the > "pitch" of the noise and he was perfectly satisfied and we are talking > about hours and days of weak signal copying with headphones. > > Ed W0SD > ______________________________________________________________ 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
