Grant Youngman N5QT wrote: > > Oh, good lord. This is ridiculous. "The noise was so bad on my K3 i had > to go back to my S-38C with external Q-multiplier just to work the > contest" ... and on and on. > > With no personal affronts intended, perhaps just learning to use the radio > would help. >
Spot on Grant...doesn't this remind you of Orion a few years ago? FYI here's a note I got from Rob Sherwood NC0B regarding his experience with the K3 in the CQ 160 last weekend. I believe everyone knows Rob is one of the most objective critics around when it comes to evaluating radios. My point in posting this is that we need to consider the source before taking many complaints at face value. In most cases, these are reflecting lack of knowledge of some of the posters more than performance of the K3. Said another way, always use some caution when reading comments here or on eHam (especially if they're from folks who use screen names only and don't have the guts to post their calls). ################################################## Hi Bill, I did post a comment on how the K3 performed. Using 40 ohm per channel stereo headphones, I was not bothered by any audio distortion issues. I ran the AGC the whole time, and noted no problems. I am not into the RF gain back and the audio up method. I have the AGC setting on SOFT, an option that came out last summer I believe. Due to the QRN on Saturday, I ran the attenuator most of the time. No use having the band noise reading up scale a few S units. I only spent about 10 to 12 hours on the contest, as I was not feeling well on Friday or Saturday. Worked 15 different countries and 8 JAs. Russia was a struggle for me, as I only worked one, and a few western Europe. No VKs this time like in W1BB contest. Used the K3 about 80% of the time. Semi-breaking with the Alpha 89 was flawless. Didn't have some setting right to make it full QSK, not that I normally run that way. Will sort that out next weekend. I had to drop down to 150 Hz BW several times due to adjacent QRM. The roofing filter switches in at 400 Hz, but I did not notice any problem with the DSP between 300 Hz and 150 Hz, not that I expected that to be an issue. Key clicks were a problem at times, but nothing fixes that, and I did hear one station in Idaho that I could copy from his phase noise 1 kHz away on either side. 73, Rob ####################################################### Regarding Grant's "S-38C in the CQ 160" comment, below are the current Top Ten claimed scores (Multiop and Single op) for the CQ 160 CW (IMHO the world's toughest environment for any receiver). I've indicated (***before the call) stations that I know for a fact were using K3s...there could be others in the list, but I'm sure of these: http://lists.contesting.com/pipermail/3830/2010-February/191049.html Call QSOs StPrv DX hr Score Club USA Multi-Op HP ***KC1XX 1870 59 80 40 1,154,256 YCCC K1TTT 1672 59 77 40 967,096 YCCC ***W2FU 1756 58 77 38 936,765 Rochester (NY) DX As NQ4I 1573 59 82 39.5 829,362 SECC K1LT 1559 58 75 39 776,587 MRRC N7DD 1410 59 83 33 752,032 Arizona Outlaws Cont K0RF 1494 59 74 33 707,693 AK9F(@WB9Z) 1542 59 75 40 700,418 SMC ***N1LN 1552 58 70 41.5 679,936 PVRC ***W8RT(@W8TOP) 1354 57 74 35.5 622,381 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ USA Single Op HP K1DG(@N1LI) 1741 59 82 30 1,292,265 YCCC K8PO 1702 58 76 30 1,185,900 YCCC ***K3ZM 1627 57 81 30 1,095,582 ***K1UO 1441 58 77 30 941,895 ***W4ZV 1542 58 68 30 829,332 PVRC KU1CW(@N0NI) 1473 59 75 30 803,062 ***AA1K 1405 58 67 30 735,750 FRC ***K5NA 1397 58 71 30 653,901 CTDXCC W1MK 1285 55 55 18.5 637,560 YCCC NR5M(NM5M) 1359 58 65 32 595,074 CTDXCC I seriously doubt many of these folks considered swapping their K3 for an S-38C! My point is, when you see ridiculous comments like Grant quoted above, always consider the source before taking them at face value. As to learning the radio, the **current online** manual and errata should be your first stop: http://www.elecraft.com/K2_Manual_Download_Page.htm#K3 The following links are also good learning resources with multiple links/pages in each: http://www.elecraft.com/K3/K3FAQ.htm http://www.elecraft.com/K3/k3_operating_tips.htm http://n1eu.com/ (click K3 link to the left) http://www.zerobeat.net/mediawiki/index.php/K3_Wiki_at_ZeroBeat.NET In most cases, Elecraft's default settings are a good starting point. The K3 is sort of like having a sports car with automatic everything. However, when you're ready to take it to a higher level of performance, the hooks are there to do so, but you need to understand what you're doing first by educating yourself. 73, Bill W4ZV -- View this message in context: http://n2.nabble.com/K3-AGC-and-Apparent-Noise-and-Signal-Distortion-tp4504951p4509902.html Sent from the [K3] 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
