Re: [Elecraft] KX3 with a long wire antenna
Conversion to metric is at your browsers finger tip: go to google.com and enter 28 feet in meter. As a side note, Google will also convert currencies for you: 249 EUR in USD. __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Small got-ya to watch for when doing the K3 12VDC Out Current Mod
Thankyou Alan, I guess for those like the OP and probably myself, that don’t like to get into the insides without a good reason; Running the K3 at 15v (HD pwr cable too) works out great esp with all the other benefits, hence my observation to those hesitant to do the mod. Adrian ... vk4tux -Original Message- From: Alan Bloom [mailto:n...@sonic.net] Sent: Monday, 10 September 2012 3:58 PM To: vk4tux Cc: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Small got-ya to watch for when doing the K3 12VDC Out Current Mod On Sun, 2012-09-09 at 20:50 -0700, vk4tux wrote: Ok, I was thinking the P3/SVGA drew less current at 15v than 12v, due to the 5/3.3/2.5/2.2 v pwr supply setup requiring less current at 15v input than it does at 14v input or less. That's right. I checked the K3 output with a 20 ohm/50w variable rheostat and it trips at 0.6amp or 600mA on my fluke 87. With a 15V supply, the P3 current is probably low enough that it will run OK from the DC output jack of an unmodified K3. The modification is still worthwhile (1) so that the P3 will still work if you (or someone else) tries to run it on a lower-voltage supply, and (2) because the modification reduces the voltage drop to the DC output jack. Alan N1AL What most people notice is that the P3 will switch off after a period of operation when the resettable fuse finally heats enough to open. Your K3 may have a defective resettable fuse in the 12V output line. -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/Small-got-ya-to-watch-for-when-do ing-the-K3-12VDC-Out-Current-Mod-tp7562356p7562362.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:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Antenna static charge precautions - any tips?
Good demo. To that cause, I'd like to share a true experience that happened to me as part of a group of Explorer Scouts on Field Day one year. I was an advisor, and had installed a ground rod, and connected a coax switch to it so that we could ground our antennas if weather threatened. The switch was inside a shelter. The sky above us was clear blue and sunny. Off to the west were black clouds and lightning that was moving our way. I told the scouts to connect the antenna coax plugs to the coax switch. As we attempted to connect the first one from a dipole, we drew a steady blue arc to the shell of the switch. It was quite a gap, too. It was blue sky and sunny in our half of the sky. Yet, the static build up from the storm caused enough voltage to arc that much. That was hard to believe. As a footnote, I made the mistake of holding the coax switch with one hand, while holding the PL259 with the other hand. It was like touching the tip of a spark plug. - Original Message - From: stan levandowski sjl...@optonline.net Cc: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2012 9:04 AM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Antenna static charge precautions - any tips? Short but interesting demo of antenna static discharge - good motivation - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlSpZ-ffacA - (BTW, I've heard the FT-817 has a 22K resistor installed but don't know that for sure) On Sun, Sep 9, 2012 at 9:28 AM, hawley, charles j jr wrote: Which begs the question...why isn't a 100K across the antenna jack in the original design? BTW, I use a choke across the antenna leads. __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] [KX3] Question: KX3 and K3 Exclusive-Or ?
Phil Hystad-3 wrote It could be that they were merely very minor differences due to the way that the KX3 panel is different but I thought that there were a few other things that were different too. Now, I can't specifically remember what they were so I will have to watch the video again to be more specific. That's one of the best videos I've seen on the KX3! The only feature I noticed that's not in the K3 is the two stage (10 dB and 20 dB) preamp. I suppose that's helpful for 6 meters and for marginal antenna systems typical of portable operations. It also has a dedicated APF button which is more easily accessible than using HOLD in the K3. Will be interested to see what else you noticed that's unique to the KX3. 73, Bill -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/KX3-Question-KX3-and-K3-Exclusive-Or-tp7562325p7562373.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:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
[Elecraft] [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection?
Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection? This could be usefull in a SO2R contest operating environment, Multi-Multi contest operating environment and on DXpeditions. (For those of you that aren't familiar with the Kenwood Master/Slave, it is a system consisting of 2 Kenwood transceivers, where one transceiver is set-up as a master and the other is set-up as a slave, the transceivers are connected with an serial cable, and this set-up alows transfering of the operating frequency from the master transceiver to the slave transceiver. But what have all this Kenwood-stuff to do with Elecraft, you may ask? It's because Kenwood transceivers and Elecraft transceivers both use the Kenwood protokol, they speak the same language you may say.) Martin Storli LA8OKA Oslo, Norway ARCTICPEAK's Radio pages! http://www.arcticpeak.com/radio.htm __ 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
[Elecraft] XV144 XV50: LED brightness
I have noticed a significant difference in the brightness of the LEDs in my XV144 and XV50 transverters. Sorry there are no serial numbers, but my XV144 was purchased in July 2004 (with Manual Rev.B, November 7, 2003). My XV50 (now modified for 70MHz) was built according to the Assembly Manual, Rev.C 22 January 2007 Owner's Manual Rev.D, April 11, 2007. The LEDs on the, later, XV50 are very much brighter than the earlier XV144. Both have exactly the same supply voltage of 13.95V. Comparing the component values and front panel schematic diagrams of both transverters, they appear to be identical. I would interested to know whether other people with multiple XV transverters are finding the same differences in brightness. Could it be that Elecraft changed the types of LED supplied in the kits over the years? 73 de David G4DMP -- + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + | David M Pratt, Kippax, Leeds. | | Website: http://www.g4dmp.co.uk | + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + __ 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
[Elecraft] transverter leds -- off reflector
David... I have an XV144 and an XV432, built about a year apart (and about 2 years ago). The front LEDs seem about the same in brightness, suggesting in your case perhaps a difference in the driver circuitry itself. John Ragle -- W1ZI -- Sent from my lovely old Dell XPS 420 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Portable antennas for use in UK
Hi Jon I tried a Hams4Hams 18m pole and I am not strong enough to push it up vertically. The Spider pole is even heavier, how do you extend the Spider pole? 73 David G3UNA - Original Message - From: Jon Kåre Hellan hel...@acm.org To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2012 10:27 AM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Portable antennas for use in UK You could get a 12m telescopic fiberglass pole from Spiderbeam and use whatever wire antenna you want with it. Use it as a center support for an inv vee or for a wire vertical. My own crazy balcony antenna is a full size vertical for 40m with two radials, can be erected or taken down in less than a minute. http://www.ha19.no/la4rt/balcony.jpg. The K3 tuner is able to tune it on all bands from 80m to 6m, that's when I'm lazy. It's also easy to take it down and put up an antenna cut for a different band, if you worry about loss or want to use an amp. I understand that the tuner in the KX3 is just as versatile as the one in the K3. Used as a support for an inv vee, don't use the top two or three sections. They're too flimsy. 73 Jon LA4RT __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Portable antennas for use in UK
On 09/10/2012 04:17 PM, David Cutter wrote: Hi Jon I tried a Hams4Hams 18m pole and I am not strong enough to push it up vertically. The Spider pole is even heavier, how do you extend the Spider pole? I find it manageble if I stand on a chair. The sections of the 18m pole are 1.5 m long (5 ft). So without the chair, the section being lifted is uncomfortably high up. But the 12m pole is a lot easier to handle. Jon 73 David G3UNA - Original Message - From: Jon Kåre Hellan hel...@acm.org To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2012 10:27 AM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Portable antennas for use in UK You could get a 12m telescopic fiberglass pole from Spiderbeam and use whatever wire antenna you want with it. Use it as a center support for an inv vee or for a wire vertical. My own crazy balcony antenna is a full size vertical for 40m with two radials, can be erected or taken down in less than a minute. http://www.ha19.no/la4rt/balcony.jpg. The K3 tuner is able to tune it on all bands from 80m to 6m, that's when I'm lazy. It's also easy to take it down and put up an antenna cut for a different band, if you worry about loss or want to use an amp. I understand that the tuner in the KX3 is just as versatile as the one in the K3. Used as a support for an inv vee, don't use the top two or three sections. They're too flimsy. 73 Jon LA4RT __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Antenna static charge precautions - any tips?
Mike, A point worth mentioning I believe, is that a static drain resistor placed inside a transceiver/ transmitter/ receiver as you suggest will provide some protection against static should an external static drain resistor fail into an open condition. Certainly good practice IMHO. 73, Geoff LX2AO On September 09, 2012 at 10:31 PM, Mike Morrow wrote: Well...perhaps because the addition of an internal high-ohm static bleed resistor at *any* radio set's antenna connection is trivial yet very good engineering practice that has no identifiable adverse effects and that costs essentially nothing. That's an 'all-win/no-lose' situation to this electrical engineer's eyes. :-) __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Portable antennas for use in UK
David, I use both 12m and 18m Spider poles. 12m one is pretty easy and could be pushed up vertically. 18m pole requires different technique, well described by the series of pictures here http://www.spiderbeam.com/product_info.php?info=p71_Spiderbeam%2018m%20fiberglass%20pole.html 73, Igor UA9CDC - Original Message - From: David Cutter d.cut...@ntlworld.com To: Jon Kåre Hellan hel...@acm.org; elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 8:17 PM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Portable antennas for use in UK Hi Jon I tried a Hams4Hams 18m pole and I am not strong enough to push it up vertically. The Spider pole is even heavier, how do you extend the Spider pole? 73 David G3UNA - Original Message - From: Jon Kåre Hellan hel...@acm.org To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2012 10:27 AM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Portable antennas for use in UK You could get a 12m telescopic fiberglass pole from Spiderbeam and use whatever wire antenna you want with it. Use it as a center support for an inv vee or for a wire vertical. My own crazy balcony antenna is a full size vertical for 40m with two radials, can be erected or taken down in less than a minute. http://www.ha19.no/la4rt/balcony.jpg. The K3 tuner is able to tune it on all bands from 80m to 6m, that's when I'm lazy. It's also easy to take it down and put up an antenna cut for a different band, if you worry about loss or want to use an amp. I understand that the tuner in the KX3 is just as versatile as the one in the K3. Used as a support for an inv vee, don't use the top two or three sections. They're too flimsy. 73 Jon LA4RT __ 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 __ 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
[Elecraft] Swains Island
The NH8S expedition, partly sponsored by Elecraft, has been going strong for a while and will be running until the 19th. Swains Island is the 31st most-needed DX country, according to DX News. They are using KPA500 amps, although not K3s (tsk-tsk). For whatever reason, the pileups have not been too bad, and the ops are excellent. Their site is NH8S.org Tony KT0NY -- http://www.isb.edu/faculty/facultydir.aspx?ddlFaculty=352 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection?
Martin, The KX3 and K3 do not support Kenwood's master/slave protocol. However, they do support different variations of Elecraft's own master/ slave protocol. This allows remote-rig operation with various different hardware configurations. The K3 version of the protocol is extremely fast, and provides virtually 100% emulation of a remote K3 by a local (terminal) K3. The KX3 implementation is at present experimental, but it will provide limited control of a KX3, K3, or K2 (only VFOs, mode, bandwidth, and RIT). I posted on this topic in detail quite recently. 73, Wayne N6KR On Sep 10, 2012, at 5:09 AM, Martin Storli - LA8OKA wrote: Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection? This could be usefull in a SO2R contest operating environment, Multi- Multi contest operating environment and on DXpeditions. (For those of you that aren't familiar with the Kenwood Master/ Slave, it is a system consisting of 2 Kenwood transceivers, where one transceiver is set-up as a master and the other is set-up as a slave, the transceivers are connected with an serial cable, and this set-up alows transfering of the operating frequency from the master transceiver to the slave transceiver. But what have all this Kenwood-stuff to do with Elecraft, you may ask? It's because Kenwood transceivers and Elecraft transceivers both use the Kenwood protokol, they speak the same language you may say.) Martin Storli LA8OKA Oslo, Norway ARCTICPEAK's Radio pages! http://www.arcticpeak.com/radio.htm __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] [KX3] Question: KX3 and K3 Exclusive-Or ?
Using the menu entry PREAMP, you can actually select 10 dB, 20 dB or 30 dB. According to the manual, 30 dB is the default for 6m. The 10 dB preamp is also the isolation amp. The 20 dB preamp has a better noise figure than the 20 dB one. The 30 db preamp is just the concatenation of the two preamps. If you select either the 10 dB preamp directly (or implicitly via the 30 dB menu setting), then the drawn current increases a bit. __ 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
[Elecraft] Vedr: [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection?
Many thanks Wayne! I have read that post but I didn't realize at the time what I could do with it. :-) (Wayne post so others don't need to do a search: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/KX3-use-as-a-k3-remote-rig-td7562242.html#a7562268 ) The reason I asked about the Kenwood Master/Slave is of course because I have some Kenwoods on the table. But the Autoinformation may be better for my intended use, since no pushing on buttons are necesarry. What I want to try out is to use the KX3 as a panadapter with my TS-2000X or TS-590 as transmitters (because they have 100 watt, and the PA for the KX3 isn't ready), and to do so, the KX3 needs to follow the frequency on the Kenwood transceiver. Remote control of my K2 is also very interesting. :-) I must try that when I have time! But the post only describes what to do on the controlling KX3, what needs to be done in order for the KX3 to receive frequency information? Martin Storli LA8OKA Oslo, Norway ARCTICPEAK's Radio pages! http://www.arcticpeak.com/radio.htm Fra: Wayne Burdick n...@elecraft.com Til: Martin Storli - LA8OKA arcticp...@yahoo.no Kopi: elecraft@mailman.qth.net elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sendt: Mandag, 10. september 2012 16.45 Emne: Re: [Elecraft] [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection? Martin, The KX3 and K3 do not support Kenwood's master/slave protocol. However, they do support different variations of Elecraft's own master/slave protocol. This allows remote-rig operation with various different hardware configurations. The K3 version of the protocol is extremely fast, and provides virtually 100% emulation of a remote K3 by a local (terminal) K3. The KX3 implementation is at present experimental, but it will provide limited control of a KX3, K3, or K2 (only VFOs, mode, bandwidth, and RIT). I posted on this topic in detail quite recently. 73, Wayne N6KR On Sep 10, 2012, at 5:09 AM, Martin Storli - LA8OKA wrote: Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection? This could be usefull in a SO2R contest operating environment, Multi-Multi contest operating environment and on DXpeditions. (For those of you that aren't familiar with the Kenwood Master/Slave, it is a system consisting of 2 Kenwood transceivers, where one transceiver is set-up as a master and the other is set-up as a slave, the transceivers are connected with an serial cable, and this set-up alows transfering of the operating frequency from the master transceiver to the slave transceiver. But what have all this Kenwood-stuff to do with Elecraft, you may ask? It's because Kenwood transceivers and Elecraft transceivers both use the Kenwood protokol, they speak the same language you may say.) Martin Storli LA8OKA Oslo, Norway ARCTICPEAK's Radio pages! http://www.arcticpeak.com/radio.htm __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection?
I don't know about this protocol, but Wayne recently wrote in this mailing list about something that might be what you mean. Search in the KX3 manual and in this mailing list for the AUTOINF menu entry, option RIG CTRL. __ 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
[Elecraft] KXAT3 tuner
Is there a spec for the tuner anywhere? I would like to know the range of input impedances it will match Colin - G8FRA/M5FRA m5fra.org.uk __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Vedr: [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection?
But the post only describes what to do on the controlling KX3, what needs to be done in order for the KX3 to receive frequency information? I'd say ... nothing. If the baudrates match and the NULL-modem cable is correct, then the KX3 sends just normal commands whenever something changes. E.g. you change VFO A via knob, then the KX3 sends the proper FA command, that would change the VFO A on the other rig. Maybe you first install some Serial Terminal program and watch what happens when you select this menu entry :-) __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Vedr: [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection?
A post note: I didn't yet use that menu entry, but I played a bit with the AI1; and AI2; serial commands, which I think are similar. 73 Holger, DH3HS __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Vedr: [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection?
But the post only describes what to do on the controlling KX3, what needs to be done in order for the KX3 to receive frequency information? The panadapter software would need to directly control the KX3 based on the primary transceiver's operating frequency (with or without an IF offset). It needs to translate the Kenwood auto-information (or frequency polling) data to the appropriateFA commands to set the KX3 receive frequency as necessary to track the primary transceiver. This is no different than slaving a Flex-1500, Perseus, SDR-IQ, etc. to any other transceiver using an RF splitter (on frequency panadapter - 1500, Perseus, SDR-IQ, etc.) or an IF tap (IF panadapter - LP-Pan, P3, Softrock, SDR-IQ with Spectravue, etc.). 73, ... Joe, W4TV On 9/10/2012 11:07 AM, Martin Storli - LA8OKA wrote: Many thanks Wayne! I have read that post but I didn't realize at the time what I could do with it. :-) (Wayne post so others don't need to do a search: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/KX3-use-as-a-k3-remote-rig-td7562242.html#a7562268 ) The reason I asked about the Kenwood Master/Slave is of course because I have some Kenwoods on the table. But the Autoinformation may be better for my intended use, since no pushing on buttons are necesarry. What I want to try out is to use the KX3 as a panadapter with my TS-2000X or TS-590 as transmitters (because they have 100 watt, and the PA for the KX3 isn't ready), and to do so, the KX3 needs to follow the frequency on the Kenwood transceiver. Remote control of my K2 is also very interesting. :-) I must try that when I have time! But the post only describes what to do on the controlling KX3, what needs to be done in order for the KX3 to receive frequency information? Martin Storli LA8OKA Oslo, Norway ARCTICPEAK's Radio pages! http://www.arcticpeak.com/radio.htm Fra: Wayne Burdick n...@elecraft.com Til: Martin Storli - LA8OKA arcticp...@yahoo.no Kopi: elecraft@mailman.qth.net elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sendt: Mandag, 10. september 2012 16.45 Emne: Re: [Elecraft] [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection? Martin, The KX3 and K3 do not support Kenwood's master/slave protocol. However, they do support different variations of Elecraft's own master/slave protocol. This allows remote-rig operation with various different hardware configurations. The K3 version of the protocol is extremely fast, and provides virtually 100% emulation of a remote K3 by a local (terminal) K3. The KX3 implementation is at present experimental, but it will provide limited control of a KX3, K3, or K2 (only VFOs, mode, bandwidth, and RIT). I posted on this topic in detail quite recently. 73, Wayne N6KR On Sep 10, 2012, at 5:09 AM, Martin Storli - LA8OKA wrote: Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection? This could be usefull in a SO2R contest operating environment, Multi-Multi contest operating environment and on DXpeditions. (For those of you that aren't familiar with the Kenwood Master/Slave, it is a system consisting of 2 Kenwood transceivers, where one transceiver is set-up as a master and the other is set-up as a slave, the transceivers are connected with an serial cable, and this set-up alows transfering of the operating frequency from the master transceiver to the slave transceiver. But what have all this Kenwood-stuff to do with Elecraft, you may ask? It's because Kenwood transceivers and Elecraft transceivers both use the Kenwood protokol, they speak the same language you may say.) Martin Storli LA8OKA Oslo, Norway ARCTICPEAK's Radio pages! http://www.arcticpeak.com/radio.htm __ 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 __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Vedr: [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection?
AI1 and AI2 modes are extremely slow, not suited to rig control in my opinion. For the KX3 we've created a new protocol, AI4, which is much faster (although not as fast or comprehensive as the K3-to-K3 protocol). In addition to using the menu entry, you can put a KX3 into terminal mode by sending it an AI4; command. Once the KX3 is in this mode, it sends control activations to a remote KX3, K3, or K2 immediately, and is *almost* like being there :) 73, Wayne N6KR On Sep 10, 2012, at 8:32 AM, Holger Schurig wrote: A post note: I didn't yet use that menu entry, but I played a bit with the AI1; and AI2; serial commands, which I think are similar. 73 Holger, DH3HS __ 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
[Elecraft] KX1 with 3080 -- first build
Hi, I'm working on a KX1, and I also have the 3080 module. I'm thinking it's best to do the 3080 mods as I build the KX1 -- or are there some good reasons to build the bare KX1 and then do the mods (I hate removing components!)?? tnx Paul AA1MI / HB9DST __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] KX1 with 3080 -- first build
The best advice is to build it and test it, then add the 3080. I did it all at once and had a small issue with the 3080...mostly due to trying to keep the 3080 toroids really tight to the pcb...solder joint. Sent from my iPhone On Sep 10, 2012, at 10:58 AM, PGSchreier pgschre...@swissonline.ch wrote: Hi, I'm working on a KX1, and I also have the 3080 module. I'm thinking it's best to do the 3080 mods as I build the KX1 -- or are there some good reasons to build the bare KX1 and then do the mods (I hate removing components!)?? tnx Paul AA1MI / HB9DST __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] KX1 with 3080 -- first build
Paul, It all depends on your building confidence level. If you are quite confident in your work and have the ability to merge 2 sets of instructions together, then the answer is yes, do it - but if this is your first time attempting such a shortcut, be careful - once you go down that path, there is no looking back and in case of trouble, the results can be confusing. However, if your skills and experience are limited, then the answer is Do it like you are instructed. If you wish to proceed with the combined changes and minimize removing components, Install L6 on the back of the board, do not install C26, C27. C1, and L7. Then do the procedures shown in the KX3080 manual through page 7. When you have checked out the operation of the KX1 on 40 and 20 meters, continue with the rest of the KXB3080 instructions. You will have to remove L1 and L2 from the PC board, but that should be a minor inconvenience 73, Don W3FPR On 9/10/2012 11:58 AM, PGSchreier wrote: Hi, I'm working on a KX1, and I also have the 3080 module.1 I'm thinking it's best to do the 3080 mods as I build the KX1 -- or are there some good reasons to build the bare KX1 and then do the mods (I hate removing components!)?? tnx Paul AA1MI / HB9DST __ 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 __ 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
[Elecraft] K2/KPA100 Question
I built K2 s/n 06424 with KSB2 awhile ago, and am considering adding a KPA100. Wonder whether this will just foul up a good radio. I recall reading about oscillation and other problems with the 100W addition to the K2. Now, I am using a 30 year old radio for QRO SSB, but of course it lacks WARC and takes up a lot of space I'd like to reclaim. Appreciate knowing whether the issues have been ironed out and any advice about making this change. In particular, I have talked on air with a friend who owns a K2/100 and his SSB signal on 40M is always weaker than any other rig he uses. Will the KSB2 need to be reconfigured after adding a KPA100? I'm mostly a CW op, but like to work phone sometimes also. Also, what else would I need to add to facilitate computer control and PSK31(which I only use rarely) using the K2/LPA100. My ultimate goal is a single small size rig and laptop on the desk, with everything else clear. Bottom line, is adding a 100W amp to what was originally a great QRP rig just asking for trouble? 72/73 Curt KB5JO __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] KX1 with 3080 -- first build
Hi Paul, I came to my KX1 after having successfully built several Heathkits back in the day, but nothing in the intervening 25 years. So I counted myself as starting over with the KX1 as my first build. I found it helpful to build the basic radio first, use it for a bit to get the hang of it, then move back to the mod. Yes, you have to unbutton the case again and remove some parts, add some others, and scratch a gap in a circuit board. I wasn't sure I wanted to do that either. But on reflection I found it easier to follow one set of instructions at a time, rather than try to splice one set into another. For me, it kept things clear and direct. I realize your mileage may vary... With best regards, Pete W1PNS __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K2/KPA100 Question
Hello Curt: I have K2 S/N 1289 and added the KPA100 shortly after it became available. There were a few issues with a very small number of early KPA100s, but the design has been completely stable for many years now. I'd hazard a guess that the vast majority of K2s out there are K2/100s, and there are a LOT of them, Hi! 73, Ron AC7AC -Original Message- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Curt Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 9:42 AM To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: [Elecraft] K2/KPA100 Question I built K2 s/n 06424 with KSB2 awhile ago, and am considering adding a KPA100. Wonder whether this will just foul up a good radio. I recall reading about oscillation and other problems with the 100W addition to the K2. Now, I am using a 30 year old radio for QRO SSB, but of course it lacks WARC and takes up a lot of space I'd like to reclaim. Appreciate knowing whether the issues have been ironed out and any advice about making this change. In particular, I have talked on air with a friend who owns a K2/100 and his SSB signal on 40M is always weaker than any other rig he uses. Will the KSB2 need to be reconfigured after adding a KPA100? I'm mostly a CW op, but like to work phone sometimes also. Also, what else would I need to add to facilitate computer control and PSK31(which I only use rarely) using the K2/LPA100. My ultimate goal is a single small size rig and laptop on the desk, with everything else clear. Bottom line, is adding a 100W amp to what was originally a great QRP rig just asking for trouble? 72/73 Curt KB5JO __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Portable antennas for use in UK
Walking up an 18m Spiderpole is ok as long as you have side guys in place plus front guys (ie the ones behind you as you walk) plus the facility to shorten the back guys as you walk. This needs another person - or a pulley at the bottom of the back guys if you are doing it on your own. Doing it single handed, I find it much easier to use a 20ft gin pole. 73 to all Geoff G3UCK -Original Message- From: Igor Sokolov Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 3:21 PM To: David Cutter ; Jon Kåre Hellan ; elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Portable antennas for use in UK David, I use both 12m and 18m Spider poles. 12m one is pretty easy and could be pushed up vertically. 18m pole requires different technique, well described by the series of pictures here http://www.spiderbeam.com/product_info.php?info=p71_Spiderbeam%2018m%20fiberglass%20pole.html 73, Igor UA9CDC - Original Message - From: David Cutter d.cut...@ntlworld.com To: Jon Kåre Hellan hel...@acm.org; elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 8:17 PM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Portable antennas for use in UK Hi Jon I tried a Hams4Hams 18m pole and I am not strong enough to push it up vertically. The Spider pole is even heavier, how do you extend the Spider pole? 73 David G3UNA - Original Message - From: Jon Kåre Hellan hel...@acm.org To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2012 10:27 AM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Portable antennas for use in UK You could get a 12m telescopic fiberglass pole from Spiderbeam and use whatever wire antenna you want with it. Use it as a center support for an inv vee or for a wire vertical. My own crazy balcony antenna is a full size vertical for 40m with two radials, can be erected or taken down in less than a minute. http://www.ha19.no/la4rt/balcony.jpg. The K3 tuner is able to tune it on all bands from 80m to 6m, that's when I'm lazy. It's also easy to take it down and put up an antenna cut for a different band, if you worry about loss or want to use an amp. I understand that the tuner in the KX3 is just as versatile as the one in the K3. Used as a support for an inv vee, don't use the top two or three sections. They're too flimsy. 73 Jon LA4RT __ 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 __ 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 __ 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
[Elecraft] FS: microHAM cables (DB37-EL-K3) for K3 to MK2R SO2R box and microKEYER/microKEYER II
In cleaning out my spare cable box, I ran across an extra pair of DB37-EL-K3 cables that connect a microHAM MK2R SO2R box (and also the microKEYER/microKEYER II according to the website) to the rear panel of a K3. Here is the description from the web: http://microham-usa.com/store/product-info.php?pid32.htmlThese cables are simply marked with the P/N (DB37-EL-K3) and not the R at the end of the label. I'm assuming microHAM changed their P/N convention to better reflect rear connection (R) as opposed to DB37-EL-K23 cable which gives you a Foster 8 connector for the mic of a K3 or K2. I preferred the 3.5 mm rear connection to look better for my K3 SO2R situation. When purchased new, these are $85 each. I'll ship the pair USPS to CONUS for $110 USD or $60 for one. Foreign shipment is fine but I'll need to add the shipping differential which might be expense since these are fairly weighty cables (guessing about 1 lb each). If interested, please reply offline to my call at ARRL.net. Payment via Pay-Pal is preferred. 73, Bob K5WA Houston, TX __ 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
[Elecraft] K3 JT 65-HF transmit?
Hello, I am attempting to get JT-65HF setup with my K3. I have the software V 1.0.9.3 and microHam MK II. I have followed the setup guide from mH and JT65. The microHam has both SC and Line LEDs lite. The software is decoding signals properly. When I try to xmit, the rig keys but no output. I have tried Data A with and without VOX...still keys, but no output. Is Data A the correct mode or should it be in USB with Vox 'on'? Tnx for any help rendered... 73 Tom CX7TT __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 JT 65-HF transmit?
Make sure you have the correct audio input selected (LINE IN, or RP / FP microphone). Matt Zilmer Consultant - Product Management Dept. Magellan Navigation / MiTAC Digital Corp. Tel: (909) 394-6052 Cell: (909) 730-6552 In status quo voluntas non sufficit -Original Message- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of cx...@4email.net Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 10:23 AM To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: [Elecraft] K3 JT 65-HF transmit? Hello, I am attempting to get JT-65HF setup with my K3. I have the software V 1.0.9.3 and microHam MK II. I have followed the setup guide from mH and JT65. The microHam has both SC and Line LEDs lite. The software is decoding signals properly. When I try to xmit, the rig keys but no output. I have tried Data A with and without VOX...still keys, but no output. Is Data A the correct mode or should it be in USB with Vox 'on'? Tnx for any help rendered... 73 Tom CX7TT __ 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 __ 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
[Elecraft] static buildup on antennas
An antenna can get charged up in different ways. First, the earth has a fair-weather electric field of about 100 v/m near the ground. This field has a very high source impedance, so most things simply look like short circuits. If, however, an antenna is left disconnected that is not shorted, it will come to equilibrium with this static field and charge up according to its capacitance. The charge will probably bleed off, but not always. During high winds, especially with dust or snow, or even rain, the charge on the antenna can become very much larger. The reason for this is that not only can the particles, charged by friction, transfer charge to the antenna, but also particles leaving a conductor in the presence of a static field carry charge away from the conductor, leaving the opposite charge on the conductor. This is why the exhaust of a helicopter or aircraft can charge it up. Because antennas are raised above the ground, the fair weather electric fields can reach high values at the top of towers or other supports, and the horizontal elements of wire antennas as well. For example, a 30 m tower can have a field near its top of 3000 v/m. In addition, there is a shape factor that can raise this value even further. Then, any sharp point can go into corona discharge, so small currents will flow. This means any wire ends not covered with tape or blobs of insulating goop will generate small steady currents. All of these static effects can easily be taken care of by simply putting a 5k resistor to ground at the antenna terminations, either at the antenna itself or at switching points, etc. A good friend and I have K2's and suffered routine blowouts of the swr sensor diodes for these reasons until we put 1/2 w 5k resistors on the inputs. no more problems. During a thunderstorm, the static electric fields near the ground can get as high as 5000 v/m or even more, depending on the arrangement of the clouds with respect to your location. This means that the buildup of charge on antennas as described above can reach really high values. However, this static buildup will still be sufficiently taken care of by the resistance trick as above. Now we come to the other problem, induced pulses from lightning. As you all know, the lightning discharge, whether in cloud or to ground is from our point of view a huge antenna. The radiation peaks at about 1-5 MHz, but there are components for various reasons well into the VHF region. Proper antenna mast and antenna treatments can be found in the literature so I won't go into that. Find some good articles and follow their advice. One main thing to remember is to keep all mitigating switches, arc points, and their grounding stuff outside the shack. In case of a direct hit to any part of the antenna system, you don't want it inside! I hope this helps somewhat. More on the earth's fair weather field can no doubt be found online. 73, Don -- Neither the voice of authority nor the weight of reason and argument are as significant as experiment, for thence comes quiet to the mind. De Erroribus Medicorum, R. Bacon, 13th century. If you don't know what it is, don't poke it. Ghost in the Shell Dr. Don Latham AJ7LL Six Mile Systems LLP 17850 Six Mile Road POB 134 Huson, MT, 59846 VOX 406-626-4304 www.lightningforensics.com www.sixmilesystems.com __ 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
[Elecraft] K3 Plasma Question
This is only slightly off-topic, but since I do operate a K3, it still fits - kinda! We have two plasma TV's in our home. One is a ten year old Sony 42 inch unit. The other one is a two year old Samsung 63 inch TV. They are about 50 feet from the shack, and only eight feet away from each other - two different rooms. The Sony has never, ever caused any sort of QRN on any of the ham bands. Because of that, we purchased the Samsung unit right after moving into this QTH. I did not have an HF antenna installed for several months after moving in - when I finally did get one put up, I saw some ugly QRN on most of the HF bands. However, at the time I was not aware of the plasma effect that I am now. When I heard the QRN, I assumed it to be from the PGE high power lines that are pretty close to the house. By the time I put two two together and figured out that the ugly noise was from this Samsung TV, it was already out of warranty. Ughhh…. We are now in the market for another TV, and have been looking at a very nice Panasonic 65 Plasma set, model TC-P65VT50. I've already told the Best Buy sales manager that IF we do buy it and IF it causes QRN to the HF bands, it is coming right back. He said that is no problem. But, if I can query this group to see if anyone else has one of these TV's, I may be able to avert a lot of work ahead of time. Our second choice would be an LED set, but after seeing plasma and LED side by side, playing the exact same content, I want to stay with plasma - BUT ONLY IF IT DOESNT SCREW UP THE K3!!! So, is there anyone in this group who has a Panasonic TC-P65VT50 TV who can say yes or no to the QRN issue? Thanks, Jim / W6JHB __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K2/KPA100 Question
Curt, Those reports of oscillation in the archives are only a few scattered reports and can usually be attributed to build errors or early problems that have now been corrected. The KPA100 design was changed (in 2008 IIRC) to cure those oscillations. Your friend whose 40 meter SSB is weaker than his other radios could be due to either the audio drive and compression he is using, or could be due to the calibration of his KPA100 wattmeter. It is difficult to answer that concern unless I have the specific K2/100 on my workbench. The KSB2 does not need to be re-configured when adding the KPA100. Just follow the instructions for the KPA100 installation (be aware of the Serial number for your base K2 and follow the appropriate set of instructions). 73, Don W3FPR On 9/10/2012 12:42 PM, Curt wrote: I built K2 s/n 06424 with KSB2 awhile ago, and am considering adding a KPA100. Wonder whether this will just foul up a good radio. I recall reading about oscillation and other problems with the 100W addition to the K2. Now, I am using a 30 year old radio for QRO SSB, but of course it lacks WARC and takes up a lot of space I'd like to reclaim. Appreciate knowing whether the issues have been ironed out and any advice about making this change. In particular, I have talked on air with a friend who owns a K2/100 and his SSB signal on 40M is always weaker than any other rig he uses. Will the KSB2 need to be reconfigured after adding a KPA100? I'm mostly a CW op, but like to work phone sometimes also. Also, what else would I need to add to facilitate computer control and PSK31(which I only use rarely) using the K2/LPA100. My ultimate goal is a single small size rig and laptop on the desk, with everything else clear. Bottom line, is adding a 100W amp to what was originally a great QRP rig just asking for trouble? 72/73 Curt KB5JO __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K2/KPA100 Question
On Monday, September 10, 2012, Curt KB5JO wrote: I built K2 s/n 06424 with KSB2 awhile ago, and am considering adding a KPA100. Wonder whether this will just foul up a good radio. I recall reading about oscillation and other problems with the 100W addition to the K2. The early KPA100 did have this problem, but it was ironed out years ago. An upgrade kit was/is offered for those early KPA100's and the design changes were incorporated in the rest of them. Appreciate knowing whether the issues have been ironed out and any advice about making this change. In particular, I have talked on air with a friend who owns a K2/100 and his SSB signal on 40M is always weaker than any other rig he uses. I have one of the early KPA100's, did the upgrade and have never had any issues with it since. No problems with output on any band phone or cw. Bottom line, is adding a 100W amp to what was originally a great QRP rig just asking for trouble? Absolutely not. Been a happy K2/100 owner for 11 years. 73, George, NC5G -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/K2-KPA100-Question-tp7562394p7562402.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:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] static buildup on antennas
Can someone comment on this issue as it relates to balanced wire antennas like dipoles fed with ladder line and matched to a K3 receiver through a balun? Is the problem with discharges from precipitation and other static electricity sources with that feed configuration the same as for coax feed? (Yes, I recognize, lightning would be a different issue.) For that matter, how does the K3 transmatch figure into the equation in terms of protecting the receiver from unfriendly charge build-ups (both when the radio is powered up and when powered off)? If the concerns are the same for both types of transmission line, what is the protection configuration external to the radio for the ladderline situation? 73, Gary VE1RGB -Original Message- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Don Latham Sent: September 10, 2012 2:35 PM To: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: [Elecraft] static buildup on antennas An antenna can get charged up in different ways. First, the earth has a fair-weather electric field of about 100 v/m near the ground. This field has a very high source impedance, so most things simply look like short circuits. If, however, an antenna is left disconnected that is not shorted, it will come to equilibrium with this static field and charge up according to its capacitance. The charge will probably bleed off, but not always. During high winds, especially with dust or snow, or even rain, the charge on the antenna can become very much larger. The reason for this is that not only can the particles, charged by friction, transfer charge to the antenna, but also particles leaving a conductor in the presence of a static field carry charge away from the conductor, leaving the opposite charge on the conductor. This is why the exhaust of a helicopter or aircraft can charge it up. Because antennas are raised above the ground, the fair weather electric fields can reach high values at the top of towers or other supports, and the horizontal elements of wire antennas as well. For example, a 30 m tower can have a field near its top of 3000 v/m. In addition, there is a shape factor that can raise this value even further. Then, any sharp point can go into corona discharge, so small currents will flow. This means any wire ends not covered with tape or blobs of insulating goop will generate small steady currents. All of these static effects can easily be taken care of by simply putting a 5k resistor to ground at the antenna terminations, either at the antenna itself or at switching points, etc. A good friend and I have K2's and suffered routine blowouts of the swr sensor diodes for these reasons until we put 1/2 w 5k resistors on the inputs. no more problems. During a thunderstorm, the static electric fields near the ground can get as high as 5000 v/m or even more, depending on the arrangement of the clouds with respect to your location. This means that the buildup of charge on antennas as described above can reach really high values. However, this static buildup will still be sufficiently taken care of by the resistance trick as above. Now we come to the other problem, induced pulses from lightning. As you all know, the lightning discharge, whether in cloud or to ground is from our point of view a huge antenna. The radiation peaks at about 1-5 MHz, but there are components for various reasons well into the VHF region. Proper antenna mast and antenna treatments can be found in the literature so I won't go into that. Find some good articles and follow their advice. One main thing to remember is to keep all mitigating switches, arc points, and their grounding stuff outside the shack. In case of a direct hit to any part of the antenna system, you don't want it inside! I hope this helps somewhat. More on the earth's fair weather field can no doubt be found online. 73, Don -- Neither the voice of authority nor the weight of reason and argument are as significant as experiment, for thence comes quiet to the mind. De Erroribus Medicorum, R. Bacon, 13th century. If you don't know what it is, don't poke it. Ghost in the Shell Dr. Don Latham AJ7LL Six Mile Systems LLP 17850 Six Mile Road POB 134 Huson, MT, 59846 VOX 406-626-4304 www.lightningforensics.com www.sixmilesystems.com __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 Plasma Question
Jim, Plasma TVs are wideband signal generators, and almost certain to cause QRN. Go for a good LED TV and things will be interference free. Yes, the plasma TVs are less expensive, but if you value your on-air time while the XYL watches TV, you will need to use something other than a plasma TV. 73, Don W3FPR On 9/10/2012 1:57 PM, Jim Bennett wrote: This is only slightly off-topic, but since I do operate a K3, it still fits - kinda! We have two plasma TV's in our home. One is a ten year old Sony 42 inch unit. The other one is a two year old Samsung 63 inch TV. They are about 50 feet from the shack, and only eight feet away from each other - two different rooms. The Sony has never, ever caused any sort of QRN on any of the ham bands. Because of that, we purchased the Samsung unit right after moving into this QTH. I did not have an HF antenna installed for several months after moving in - when I finally did get one put up, I saw some ugly QRN on most of the HF bands. However, at the time I was not aware of the plasma effect that I am now. When I heard the QRN, I assumed it to be from the PGE high power lines that are pretty close to the house. By the time I put two two together and figured out that the ugly noise was from this Samsung TV, it was already out of warranty. Ughhh…. We are now in the market for another TV, and have been looking at a very nice Panasonic 65 Plasma set, model TC-P65VT50. I've already told the Best Buy sales manager that IF we do buy it and IF it causes QRN to the HF bands, it is coming right back. He said that is no problem. But, if I can query this group to see if anyone else has one of these TV's, I may be able to avert a lot of work ahead of time. Our second choice would be an LED set, but after seeing plasma and LED side by side, playing the exact same content, I want to stay with plasma - BUT ONLY IF IT DOESNT SCREW UP THE K3!!! __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 Plasma Question
Jim, I'm surprised that your Sony didn't create QRN. The QRN is produced by the plasma in each pixel and radiated directly out of the display screen. It's not unusual to detect plasma panel QRN hundreds of feet from the TV set. Sony must have used some sort of transparent RF shield embedded or applied to the front glass. That's a new one on me. Long ago I refused to consider a plasma TV for just that reason. Personally, I cannot see the difference in images between LCD panels with an active matrix LED backlight and the LCD/LED versions maintain image quality much longer and use less power. The new active matrix LED backlighting system (changes the brightness of the backlight LED's as needed to support the image content in each part of the picture) provides a huge contrast ratio over an LCD alone. 73, Ron AC7AC -Original Message- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Jim Bennett Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 10:57 AM To: Elecraft Reflector Reflector Subject: [Elecraft] K3 Plasma Question This is only slightly off-topic, but since I do operate a K3, it still fits - kinda! We have two plasma TV's in our home. One is a ten year old Sony 42 inch unit. The other one is a two year old Samsung 63 inch TV. They are about 50 feet from the shack, and only eight feet away from each other - two different rooms. The Sony has never, ever caused any sort of QRN on any of the ham bands. Because of that, we purchased the Samsung unit right after moving into this QTH. I did not have an HF antenna installed for several months after moving in - when I finally did get one put up, I saw some ugly QRN on most of the HF bands. However, at the time I was not aware of the plasma effect that I am now. When I heard the QRN, I assumed it to be from the PGE high power lines that are pretty close to the house. By the time I put two two together and figured out that the ugly noise was from this Samsung TV, it was already out of warranty. Ughhh.. We are now in the market for another TV, and have been looking at a very nice Panasonic 65 Plasma set, model TC-P65VT50. I've already told the Best Buy sales manager that IF we do buy it and IF it causes QRN to the HF bands, it is coming right back. He said that is no problem. But, if I can query this group to see if anyone else has one of these TV's, I may be able to avert a lot of work ahead of time. Our second choice would be an LED set, but after seeing plasma and LED side by side, playing the exact same content, I want to stay with plasma - BUT ONLY IF IT DOESNT SCREW UP THE K3!!! So, is there anyone in this group who has a Panasonic TC-P65VT50 TV who can say yes or no to the QRN issue? Thanks, Jim / W6JHB __ 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
[Elecraft] Your P3/SVGA Keyboard?
I'm in the process of putting together a list of suggested USB keyboards for the Elecraft P3/SVGA board and could use your help. I've got a few favorites here that work great, but it would be nice to know what you're using. Please email me directly, pauls at elecraft. 73, Paul -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/Your-P3-SVGA-Keyboard-tp7562404.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:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] K3 Plasma Question
Plasma TVs should be made explicitly illegal, because of the interference issues they cause on HF. But the reverse is also often true. I had a neighbor who bought a plasma TV. The dern thing put out all sorts of QRM and gudge around 4 MHz (near one of the MARS frequencies). As I operated more and more often on that MARS freq, I found that the interference decreased over time (at least when I was on the air and transmitting). Much later, the neighbor reported that she'd taken the TV back to the retailer because right around 5 PM every day she couldn't receive anything for a few seconds at a time. She assumed it was defective (it was) and they gave her credit for another (LED) TV. We live in an area with large setbacks, so her plasma set was more than 100 feet from the antenna. She's had no problems with the LED TV. Matt Zilmer, W6NIA In status quo voluntas non sufficit -Original Message- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Don Wilhelm Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 11:20 AM To: Jim Bennett Cc: Elecraft Reflector Reflector Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 Plasma Question Jim, Plasma TVs are wideband signal generators, and almost certain to cause QRN. Go for a good LED TV and things will be interference free. Yes, the plasma TVs are less expensive, but if you value your on-air time while the XYL watches TV, you will need to use something other than a plasma TV. 73, Don W3FPR On 9/10/2012 1:57 PM, Jim Bennett wrote: This is only slightly off-topic, but since I do operate a K3, it still fits - kinda! We have two plasma TV's in our home. One is a ten year old Sony 42 inch unit. The other one is a two year old Samsung 63 inch TV. They are about 50 feet from the shack, and only eight feet away from each other - two different rooms. The Sony has never, ever caused any sort of QRN on any of the ham bands. Because of that, we purchased the Samsung unit right after moving into this QTH. I did not have an HF antenna installed for several months after moving in - when I finally did get one put up, I saw some ugly QRN on most of the HF bands. However, at the time I was not aware of the plasma effect that I am now. When I heard the QRN, I assumed it to be from the PGE high power lines that are pretty close to the house. By the time I put two two together and figured out that the ugly noise was from this Samsung TV, it was already out of warranty. Ughhh We are now in the market for another TV, and have been looking at a very nice Panasonic 65 Plasma set, model TC-P65VT50. I've already told the Best Buy sales manager that IF we do buy it and IF it causes QRN to the HF bands, it is coming right back. He said that is no problem. But, if I can query this group to see if anyone else has one of these TV's, I may be able to avert a lot of work ahead of time. Our second choice would be an LED set, but after seeing plasma and LED side by side, playing the exact same content, I want to stay with plasma - BUT ONLY IF IT DOESNT SCREW UP THE K3!!! __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] static buildup on antennas
It gets tricky when the antenna feed point impedance is several thousand ohms such as I see with my 130 foot inverted L on 80 meters or with the common open wire fed multiband doublets. In those cases it's common to use a resistance of 100K or more to avoid excessive losses in the resistors. But, such large resistances require more time to bleed off the accumulated voltage. At some point they can no longer drain the charge as fast as it accumulates and become ineffective. My favorite tuner for such antennas has always been a link-coupled tuner. No direct-current connection between the antenna and the rig and a d-c path to ground for the antenna at all times. But such tuners are not conducive to fast, automatic operation. 73, Ron AC7AC __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] static buildup on antennas
Gary, The type of transmission line does not matter, there will be static buildup on the antenna wires, pure and simple. That is conducted into the shack by the transmission line, whether that be coax or balanced line. I am sorry I did not make that clear previously. Most transceivers use coax input, and as long as the problem is solved before the coax reaches the transceiver, there is no remaining problem. Yes. a resistor across the balanced feedline will be sufficient. 73, Don W3FPR On 9/10/2012 2:19 PM, gary bartlett wrote: Can someone comment on this issue as it relates to balanced wire antennas like dipoles fed with ladder line and matched to a K3 receiver through a balun? Is the problem with discharges from precipitation and other static electricity sources with that feed configuration the same as for coax feed? (Yes, I recognize, lightning would be a different issue.) For that matter, how does the K3 transmatch figure into the equation in terms of protecting the receiver from unfriendly charge build-ups (both when the radio is powered up and when powered off)? If the concerns are the same for both types of transmission line, what is the protection configuration external to the radio for the ladderline situation? 73, Gary VE1RGB -Original Message- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Don Latham Sent: September 10, 2012 2:35 PM To: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: [Elecraft] static buildup on antennas An antenna can get charged up in different ways. First, the earth has a fair-weather electric field of about 100 v/m near the ground. This field has a very high source impedance, so most things simply look like short circuits. If, however, an antenna is left disconnected that is not shorted, it will come to equilibrium with this static field and charge up according to its capacitance. The charge will probably bleed off, but not always. During high winds, especially with dust or snow, or even rain, the charge on the antenna can become very much larger. The reason for this is that not only can the particles, charged by friction, transfer charge to the antenna, but also particles leaving a conductor in the presence of a static field carry charge away from the conductor, leaving the opposite charge on the conductor. This is why the exhaust of a helicopter or aircraft can charge it up. Because antennas are raised above the ground, the fair weather electric fields can reach high values at the top of towers or other supports, and the horizontal elements of wire antennas as well. For example, a 30 m tower can have a field near its top of 3000 v/m. In addition, there is a shape factor that can raise this value even further. Then, any sharp point can go into corona discharge, so small currents will flow. This means any wire ends not covered with tape or blobs of insulating goop will generate small steady currents. All of these static effects can easily be taken care of by simply putting a 5k resistor to ground at the antenna terminations, either at the antenna itself or at switching points, etc. A good friend and I have K2's and suffered routine blowouts of the swr sensor diodes for these reasons until we put 1/2 w 5k resistors on the inputs. no more problems. During a thunderstorm, the static electric fields near the ground can get as high as 5000 v/m or even more, depending on the arrangement of the clouds with respect to your location. This means that the buildup of charge on antennas as described above can reach really high values. However, this static buildup will still be sufficiently taken care of by the resistance trick as above. Now we come to the other problem, induced pulses from lightning. As you all know, the lightning discharge, whether in cloud or to ground is from our point of view a huge antenna. The radiation peaks at about 1-5 MHz, but there are components for various reasons well into the VHF region. Proper antenna mast and antenna treatments can be found in the literature so I won't go into that. Find some good articles and follow their advice. One main thing to remember is to keep all mitigating switches, arc points, and their grounding stuff outside the shack. In case of a direct hit to any part of the antenna system, you don't want it inside! I hope this helps somewhat. More on the earth's fair weather field can no doubt be found online. 73, Don __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 Plasma Question
If you are a ham, just say NO to plasma TV. Even if they have a generally successful shielding scheme, YOURS could just have one little defective connection whose only outcome is noise. Techs will never be able to fix it. You have to take it apart to work on it. Taking it apart disconnects the shielding. And the other thing, if you insist on torturing yourself by buying plasma, get any guarantee IN WRITING, signed by someone in the store who has AUTHORITY. That Best Buy manager can be drop-kicked to another store or out of a job in a heartbeat. New guy, or someone from a different shift, and he's going to look in some book to see what he can do, and maybe won't do that. 73, Guy. On Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 1:57 PM, Jim Bennett w6...@mac.com wrote: This is only slightly off-topic, but since I do operate a K3, it still fits - kinda! We have two plasma TV's in our home. One is a ten year old Sony 42 inch unit. The other one is a two year old Samsung 63 inch TV. They are about 50 feet from the shack, and only eight feet away from each other - two different rooms. The Sony has never, ever caused any sort of QRN on any of the ham bands. Because of that, we purchased the Samsung unit right after moving into this QTH. I did not have an HF antenna installed for several months after moving in - when I finally did get one put up, I saw some ugly QRN on most of the HF bands. However, at the time I was not aware of the plasma effect that I am now. When I heard the QRN, I assumed it to be from the PGE high power lines that are pretty close to the house. By the time I put two two together and figured out that the ugly noise was from this Samsung TV, it was already out of warranty. Ughhh…. We are now in the market for another TV, and have been looking at a very nice Panasonic 65 Plasma set, model TC-P65VT50. I've already told the Best Buy sales manager that IF we do buy it and IF it causes QRN to the HF bands, it is coming right back. He said that is no problem. But, if I can query this group to see if anyone else has one of these TV's, I may be able to avert a lot of work ahead of time. Our second choice would be an LED set, but after seeing plasma and LED side by side, playing the exact same content, I want to stay with plasma - BUT ONLY IF IT DOESNT SCREW UP THE K3!!! So, is there anyone in this group who has a Panasonic TC-P65VT50 TV who can say yes or no to the QRN issue? Thanks, Jim / W6JHB __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 Plasma Question
Matt, Quite interesting. In my situation, the nearest neighbor is 1/4 mile away, so hopefully the effects of a plasma TV will not be apparent to me. When I went shopping for a TV, I avoided plasma and went with the LED screen. That was the lowest power consumption TV, and since the XYL watches a LOT of TV, keeping the AC power consumed to a minimum was an important parameter. The LED displays do not create any interference as far as I can determine. 73, Don W3FPR On 9/10/2012 2:29 PM, Matthew Zilmer wrote: Plasma TVs should be made explicitly illegal, because of the interference issues they cause on HF. But the reverse is also often true. I had a neighbor who bought a plasma TV. The dern thing put out all sorts of QRM and gudge around 4 MHz (near one of the MARS frequencies). As I operated more and more often on that MARS freq, I found that the interference decreased over time (at least when I was on the air and transmitting). Much later, the neighbor reported that she'd taken the TV back to the retailer because right around 5 PM every day she couldn't receive anything for a few seconds at a time. She assumed it was defective (it was) and they gave her credit for another (LED) TV. We live in an area with large setbacks, so her plasma set was more than 100 feet from the antenna. She's had no problems with the LED TV. Matt Zilmer, W6NIA In status quo voluntas non sufficit -Original Message- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Don Wilhelm Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 11:20 AM To: Jim Bennett Cc: Elecraft Reflector Reflector Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 Plasma Question Jim, Plasma TVs are wideband signal generators, and almost certain to cause QRN. Go for a good LED TV and things will be interference free. Yes, the plasma TVs are less expensive, but if you value your on-air time while the XYL watches TV, you will need to use something other than a plasma TV. 73, Don W3FPR On 9/10/2012 1:57 PM, Jim Bennett wrote: This is only slightly off-topic, but since I do operate a K3, it still fits - kinda! We have two plasma TV's in our home. One is a ten year old Sony 42 inch unit. The other one is a two year old Samsung 63 inch TV. They are about 50 feet from the shack, and only eight feet away from each other - two different rooms. The Sony has never, ever caused any sort of QRN on any of the ham bands. Because of that, we purchased the Samsung unit right after moving into this QTH. I did not have an HF antenna installed for several months after moving in - when I finally did get one put up, I saw some ugly QRN on most of the HF bands. However, at the time I was not aware of the plasma effect that I am now. When I heard the QRN, I assumed it to be from the PGE high power lines that are pretty close to the house. By the time I put two two together and figured out that the ugly noise was from this Samsung TV, it was already out of warranty. Ughhh We are now in the market for another TV, and have been looking at a very nice Panasonic 65 Plasma set, model TC-P65VT50. I've already told the Best Buy sales manager that IF we do buy it and IF it causes QRN to the HF bands, it is coming right back. He said that is no problem. But, if I can query this group to see if anyone else has one of these TV's, I may be able to avert a lot of work ahead of time. Our second choice would be an LED set, but after seeing plasma and LED side by side, playing the exact same content, I want to stay with plasma - BUT ONLY IF IT DOESNT SCREW UP THE K3!!! __ 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 __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] static buildup on antennas
Gary, My antenna tuner has a 4:1 current balun built in. The DC resistance across the ladder line is near zero ohms. I would think that would bleed off any charge. 73, Art WB8ENE -- Original Message -- From: gary bartlett garybartl...@accesswave.ca To: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] static buildup on antennas Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2012 15:19:04 -0300 Can someone comment on this issue as it relates to balanced wire antennas like dipoles fed with ladder line and matched to a K3 receiver through a balun? Is the problem with discharges from precipitation and other static electricity sources with that feed configuration the same as for coax feed? (Yes, I recognize, lightning would be a different issue.) For that matter, how does the K3 transmatch figure into the equation in terms of protecting the receiver from unfriendly charge build-ups (both when the radio is powered up and when powered off)? If the concerns are the same for both types of transmission line, what is the protection configuration external to the radio for the ladderline situation? 73, Gary VE1RGB -Original Message- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Don Latham Sent: September 10, 2012 2:35 PM To: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: [Elecraft] static buildup on antennas An antenna can get charged up in different ways. First, the earth has a fair-weather electric field of about 100 v/m near the ground. This field has a very high source impedance, so most things simply look like short circuits. If, however, an antenna is left disconnected that is not shorted, it will come to equilibrium with this static field and charge up according to its capacitance. The charge will probably bleed off, but not always. During high winds, especially with dust or snow, or even rain, the charge on the antenna can become very much larger. The reason for this is that not only can the particles, charged by friction, transfer charge to the antenna, but also particles leaving a conductor in the presence of a static field carry charge away from the conductor, leaving the opposite charge on the conductor. This is why the exhaust of a helicopter or aircraft can charge it up. Because antennas are raised above the ground, the fair weather electric fields can reach high values at the top of towers or other supports, and the horizontal elements of wire antennas as well. For example, a 30 m tower can have a field near its top of 3000 v/m. In addition, there is a shape factor that can raise this value even further. Then, any sharp point can go into corona discharge, so small currents will flow. This means any wire ends not covered with tape or blobs of insulating goop will generate small steady currents. All of these static effects can easily be taken care of by simply putting a 5k resistor to ground at the antenna terminations, either at the antenna itself or at switching points, etc. A good friend and I have K2's and suffered routine blowouts of the swr sensor diodes for these reasons until we put 1/2 w 5k resistors on the inputs. no more problems. During a thunderstorm, the static electric fields near the ground can get as high as 5000 v/m or even more, depending on the arrangement of the clouds with respect to your location. This means that the buildup of charge on antennas as described above can reach really high values. However, this static buildup will still be sufficiently taken care of by the resistance trick as above. Now we come to the other problem, induced pulses from lightning. As you all know, the lightning discharge, whether in cloud or to ground is from our point of view a huge antenna. The radiation peaks at about 1-5 MHz, but there are components for various reasons well into the VHF region. Proper antenna mast and antenna treatments can be found in the literature so I won't go into that. Find some good articles and follow their advice. One main thing to remember is to keep all mitigating switches, arc points, and their grounding stuff outside the shack. In case of a direct hit to any part of the antenna system, you don't want it inside! I hope this helps somewhat. More on the earth's fair weather field can no doubt be found online. 73, Don -- Neither the voice of authority nor the weight of reason and argument are as significant as experiment, for thence comes quiet to the mind. De Erroribus Medicorum, R. Bacon, 13th century. If you don't know what it is, don't poke it. Ghost in the Shell Dr. Don Latham AJ7LL Six Mile Systems LLP 17850 Six Mile Road POB 134 Huson, MT, 59846 VOX 406-626-4304 www.lightningforensics.com www.sixmilesystems.com __ 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:
Re: [Elecraft] static buildup on antennas
Yes, link coupled tuners will solve a lot of those problems. There is no DC path from the antenna to the transceiver. However, those link coupled tuners have been disappearing from the face of the earth at a rapid rate. They are not easily band-switched (the Johnson Matchbox units were an attempt, but the matching rang was limited)/ 73,\ Don W3FPR On 9/10/2012 2:31 PM, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote: It gets tricky when the antenna feed point impedance is several thousand ohms such as I see with my 130 foot inverted L on 80 meters or with the common open wire fed multiband doublets. In those cases it's common to use a resistance of 100K or more to avoid excessive losses in the resistors. But, such large resistances require more time to bleed off the accumulated voltage. At some point they can no longer drain the charge as fast as it accumulates and become ineffective. My favorite tuner for such antennas has always been a link-coupled tuner. No direct-current connection between the antenna and the rig and a d-c path to ground for the antenna at all times. But such tuners are not conducive to fast, automatic operation. 73, Ron AC7AC __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 Plasma Question
I like the idea of causing interference to Plasma, I know, which is a terrible thing to say. Matt's solution seems so perfect. 73, Bill K9YEQ -Original Message- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Don Wilhelm Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 1:39 PM To: Matthew Zilmer Cc: Jim Bennett; Elecraft Reflector Reflector; d...@w3fpr.com Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 Plasma Question Matt, Quite interesting. In my situation, the nearest neighbor is 1/4 mile away, so hopefully the effects of a plasma TV will not be apparent to me. When I went shopping for a TV, I avoided plasma and went with the LED screen. That was the lowest power consumption TV, and since the XYL watches a LOT of TV, keeping the AC power consumed to a minimum was an important parameter. The LED displays do not create any interference as far as I can determine. 73, Don W3FPR On 9/10/2012 2:29 PM, Matthew Zilmer wrote: Plasma TVs should be made explicitly illegal, because of the interference issues they cause on HF. But the reverse is also often true. I had a neighbor who bought a plasma TV. The dern thing put out all sorts of QRM and gudge around 4 MHz (near one of the MARS frequencies). As I operated more and more often on that MARS freq, I found that the interference decreased over time (at least when I was on the air and transmitting). Much later, the neighbor reported that she'd taken the TV back to the retailer because right around 5 PM every day she couldn't receive anything for a few seconds at a time. She assumed it was defective (it was) and they gave her credit for another (LED) TV. We live in an area with large setbacks, so her plasma set was more than 100 feet from the antenna. She's had no problems with the LED TV. Matt Zilmer, W6NIA In status quo voluntas non sufficit -Original Message- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Don Wilhelm Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 11:20 AM To: Jim Bennett Cc: Elecraft Reflector Reflector Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 Plasma Question Jim, Plasma TVs are wideband signal generators, and almost certain to cause QRN. Go for a good LED TV and things will be interference free. Yes, the plasma TVs are less expensive, but if you value your on-air time while the XYL watches TV, you will need to use something other than a plasma TV. 73, Don W3FPR On 9/10/2012 1:57 PM, Jim Bennett wrote: This is only slightly off-topic, but since I do operate a K3, it still fits - kinda! We have two plasma TV's in our home. One is a ten year old Sony 42 inch unit. The other one is a two year old Samsung 63 inch TV. They are about 50 feet from the shack, and only eight feet away from each other - two different rooms. The Sony has never, ever caused any sort of QRN on any of the ham bands. Because of that, we purchased the Samsung unit right after moving into this QTH. I did not have an HF antenna installed for several months after moving in - when I finally did get one put up, I saw some ugly QRN on most of the HF bands. However, at the time I was not aware of the plasma effect that I am now. When I heard the QRN, I assumed it to be from the PGE high power lines that are pretty close to the house. By the time I put two two together and figured out that the ugly noise was from this Samsung TV, it was already out of warranty. Ughhh We are now in the market for another TV, and have been looking at a very nice Panasonic 65 Plasma set, model TC-P65VT50. I've already told the Best Buy sales manager that IF we do buy it and IF it causes QRN to the HF bands, it is coming right back. He said that is no problem. But, if I can query this group to see if anyone else has one of these TV's, I may be able to avert a lot of work ahead of time. Our second choice would be an LED set, but after seeing plasma and LED side by side, playing the exact same content, I want to stay with plasma - BUT ONLY IF IT DOESNT SCREW UP THE K3!!! __ 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 __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] static buildup on antennas
Don, Did I not see a picture of your shack with a Matchbox, or am I thinking of someone else? As sweet as the link coupling is, I would think a servo controlled box could be designed as an automatic unit... perhaps Wayne could be talked into designing one starting at QRP level and eventually designing a QRO linker. 73, Bill K9YEQ -Original Message- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Don Wilhelm Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 1:46 PM To: Ron D'Eau Claire Cc: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] static buildup on antennas Yes, link coupled tuners will solve a lot of those problems. There is no DC path from the antenna to the transceiver. However, those link coupled tuners have been disappearing from the face of the earth at a rapid rate. They are not easily band-switched (the Johnson Matchbox units were an attempt, but the matching rang was limited)/ 73,\ Don W3FPR On 9/10/2012 2:31 PM, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote: It gets tricky when the antenna feed point impedance is several thousand ohms such as I see with my 130 foot inverted L on 80 meters or with the common open wire fed multiband doublets. In those cases it's common to use a resistance of 100K or more to avoid excessive losses in the resistors. But, such large resistances require more time to bleed off the accumulated voltage. At some point they can no longer drain the charge as fast as it accumulates and become ineffective. My favorite tuner for such antennas has always been a link-coupled tuner. No direct-current connection between the antenna and the rig and a d-c path to ground for the antenna at all times. But such tuners are not conducive to fast, automatic operation. 73, Ron AC7AC __ 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 __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] static buildup on antennas
-Original Message- From: valvetb...@netzero.com Subject: Re: [Elecraft] static buildup on antennas Gary, My antenna tuner has a 4:1 current balun built in. The DC resistance across the ladder line is near zero ohms. I would think that would bleed off any charge. 73, Art WB8ENE Any balun that has a DC path between the center conductor and shield will take care of the static buildup problem. Balun designs vary, but all the 4:1 current baluns I have do have that DC path. If you aren't sure what's inside a balun, you can make a quick check with an ohmmeter. A reading of near zero ohms between the center conductor and the shell tells you that the DC path is there. Chuck N4XS __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 JT 65-HF transmit?
The microHAM guide for WSJT assumes DATA A. Have you set the Line In level correctly in the K3? Is MK II configured for data mode and Line input (rear) for FSK/Digital modes? 73, ... Joe, W4TV On 9/10/2012 1:22 PM, cx...@4email.net wrote: Hello, I am attempting to get JT-65HF setup with my K3. I have the software V 1.0.9.3 and microHam MK II. I have followed the setup guide from mH and JT65. The microHam has both SC and Line LEDs lite. The software is decoding signals properly. When I try to xmit, the rig keys but no output. I have tried Data A with and without VOX...still keys, but no output. Is Data A the correct mode or should it be in USB with Vox 'on'? Tnx for any help rendered... 73 Tom CX7TT __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] static buildup on antennas
Comments interspersed since you asked questions. On 9/10/2012 11:19 AM, gary bartlett wrote: Can someone comment on this issue as it relates to balanced wire antennas like dipoles fed with ladder line and matched to a K3 receiver through a balun? Doesn't matter, so long as the antenna is not at DC ground. A grounded, shunt fed tower is at DC ground. A dipole strung between it and an organic tower isn't. Is the problem with discharges from precipitation and other static electricity sources with that feed configuration the same as for coax feed? Essentially, yes. (Yes, I recognize, lightning would be a different issue.) For that matter, how does the K3 transmatch figure into the equation in terms of protecting the receiver from unfriendly charge build-ups (both when the radio is powered up and when powered off)? Powered or non-powered, doesn't matter. My K3 has a static bleed resistor inside, I also have 100K's [I think, maybe 50K] on coax tee's on the antenna connectors. If the concerns are the same for both types of transmission line, what is the protection configuration external to the radio for the ladderline situation? Well, pretty much the same only not quite as convenient as the PL-259/coax tee solution. Just put a 100K to ground from both sides of the balanced line. If you have a balun in your configuration, it's possible that it will DC ground your antenna through a center-tap. It's easy enough to test. We can talk this into way more of a problem than it really is, as Don mentioned, and possibly is happening. The so called fair weather field of 100-200 V/m means nothing, its source impedance is so high that it delivers essentially zero current. I'm 6'2 [1.87m] so standing outside, the potential of my head should be a few hundred volts above my feet. In fact, I'm a short circuit and it is zero or extremely close to it. Precip static is a problem only if your antenna input on the radio is DC insulated from ground. The individual charges deposited in the antenna are very tiny but they add up in the input capacitance and the potential slowly ratchets up. The no-more-stress solution is just put a bleed resistor on all your antennas, leave it there, and move on to working NH8S on all bands. :-) 73, Fred K6DGW - Northern California Contest Club - CU in the 2012 Cal QSO Party 6-7 Oct 2012 - www.cqp.org __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 Plasma Question
On 9/10/2012 11:20 AM, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote: longer and use less power. The new active matrix LED backlighting system (changes the brightness of the backlight LED's as needed to support the image content in each part of the picture) provides a huge contrast ratio over an LCD alone. Indeed! We finally bought a Panasonic LCD/LED because of that. I don't have any color vision, and in the store, the contrast ratio of it over all the others was striking for me. It was a little spendy, but now we both can enjoy HD, high-contrast TV. I've always thought the plasma TV idea belonged in the same trash can as the 21 MHz TV IF of the 50's/60's. :-) 73, Fred K6DGW - Northern California Contest Club - CU in the 2012 Cal QSO Party 6-7 Oct 2012 - www.cqp.org __ 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
[Elecraft] Vedr: Vedr: [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection?
I Just tryed this now, and wow, this is cool!! I now have a remote panel (the KX3) for my TS-590!! :-) I can now tune and change modes on my TS-590 from the KX3. But the KX3 turns of all the receive/transmit functionality so I didn't got any panadapter, and I can't use any of the other unik features of the KX3, so I'm only halfway there. And it only goes one way, so tuning the TS-590 will not tune the KX3. I haven't yet tryed on the K2 (need to make a new cable for that), but I guess it's the same. If I dare suggest a new meny option who lets the RX/TX on the KX3 remain on, I will get about 90% to the target. :-) (The remaining is 5% antenna switching, which is easy http://www.herostechnology.co.uk/pages/RF_Filters/filters.html#SPLTBYP and 5% for leting the TS-590 control the KX3, the last 5 % I can't see any easy sollution for.) Martin Storli LA8OKA Oslo, Norway ARCTICPEAK's Radio pages! http://www.arcticpeak.com/radio.htm Fra: Martin Storli - LA8OKA arcticp...@yahoo.no Til: Wayne Burdick n...@elecraft.com; Elecraft Reflector elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sendt: Mandag, 10. september 2012 17.07 Emne: [Elecraft] Vedr: [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection? Many thanks Wayne! I have read that post but I didn't realize at the time what I could do with it. :-) (Wayne post so others don't need to do a search: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/KX3-use-as-a-k3-remote-rig-td7562242.html#a7562268 ) The reason I asked about the Kenwood Master/Slave is of course because I have some Kenwoods on the table. But the Autoinformation may be better for my intended use, since no pushing on buttons are necesarry. What I want to try out is to use the KX3 as a panadapter with my TS-2000X or TS-590 as transmitters (because they have 100 watt, and the PA for the KX3 isn't ready), and to do so, the KX3 needs to follow the frequency on the Kenwood transceiver. Remote control of my K2 is also very interesting. :-) I must try that when I have time! But the post only describes what to do on the controlling KX3, what needs to be done in order for the KX3 to receive frequency information? Martin Storli LA8OKA Oslo, Norway ARCTICPEAK's Radio pages! http://www.arcticpeak.com/radio.htm Fra: Wayne Burdick n...@elecraft.com Til: Martin Storli - LA8OKA arcticp...@yahoo.no Kopi: elecraft@mailman.qth.net elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sendt: Mandag, 10. september 2012 16.45 Emne: Re: [Elecraft] [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection? Martin, The KX3 and K3 do not support Kenwood's master/slave protocol. However, they do support different variations of Elecraft's own master/slave protocol. This allows remote-rig operation with various different hardware configurations. The K3 version of the protocol is extremely fast, and provides virtually 100% emulation of a remote K3 by a local (terminal) K3. The KX3 implementation is at present experimental, but it will provide limited control of a KX3, K3, or K2 (only VFOs, mode, bandwidth, and RIT). I posted on this topic in detail quite recently. 73, Wayne N6KR On Sep 10, 2012, at 5:09 AM, Martin Storli - LA8OKA wrote: Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection? This could be usefull in a SO2R contest operating environment, Multi-Multi contest operating environment and on DXpeditions. (For those of you that aren't familiar with the Kenwood Master/Slave, it is a system consisting of 2 Kenwood transceivers, where one transceiver is set-up as a master and the other is set-up as a slave, the transceivers are connected with an serial cable, and this set-up alows transfering of the operating frequency from the master transceiver to the slave transceiver. But what have all this Kenwood-stuff to do with Elecraft, you may ask? It's because Kenwood transceivers and Elecraft transceivers both use the Kenwood protokol, they speak the same language you may say.) Martin Storli LA8OKA Oslo, Norway ARCTICPEAK's Radio pages! http://www.arcticpeak.com/radio.htm __ 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 __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Vedr: Vedr: [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection?
Hi Martin, I'm glad you're finding this feature promising. It is still very much in the experimental phase, and I won't be making further changes to it for quite awhile. But I'll save your suggestions. 73, Wayne N6KR On Sep 10, 2012, at 1:12 PM, Martin Storli - LA8OKA wrote: I Just tryed this now, and wow, this is cool!! I now have a remote panel (the KX3) for my TS-590!! :-) I can now tune and change modes on my TS-590 from the KX3. But the KX3 turns of all the receive/transmit functionality so I didn't got any panadapter, and I can't use any of the other unik features of the KX3, so I'm only halfway there. And it only goes one way, so tuning the TS-590 will not tune the KX3. I haven't yet tryed on the K2 (need to make a new cable for that), but I guess it's the same. If I dare suggest a new meny option who lets the RX/TX on the KX3 remain on, I will get about 90% to the target. :-) (The remaining is 5% antenna switching, which is easy http://www.herostechnology.co.uk/pages/RF_Filters/filters.html#SPLTBYP and 5% for leting the TS-590 control the KX3, the last 5 % I can't see any easy sollution for.) Martin Storli LA8OKA Oslo, Norway ARCTICPEAK's Radio pages! http://www.arcticpeak.com/radio.htm Fra: Martin Storli - LA8OKA arcticp...@yahoo.no Til: Wayne Burdick n...@elecraft.com; Elecraft Reflector elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sendt: Mandag, 10. september 2012 17.07 Emne: [Elecraft] Vedr: [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/ Slave connection? Many thanks Wayne! I have read that post but I didn't realize at the time what I could do with it. :-) (Wayne post so others don't need to do a search: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/KX3-use-as-a-k3-remote-rig-td7562242.html#a7562268 ) The reason I asked about the Kenwood Master/Slave is of course because I have some Kenwoods on the table. But the Autoinformation may be better for my intended use, since no pushing on buttons are necesarry. What I want to try out is to use the KX3 as a panadapter with my TS-2000X or TS-590 as transmitters (because they have 100 watt, and the PA for the KX3 isn't ready), and to do so, the KX3 needs to follow the frequency on the Kenwood transceiver. Remote control of my K2 is also very interesting. :-) I must try that when I have time! But the post only describes what to do on the controlling KX3, what needs to be done in order for the KX3 to receive frequency information? Martin Storli LA8OKA Oslo, Norway ARCTICPEAK's Radio pages! http://www.arcticpeak.com/radio.htm Fra: Wayne Burdick n...@elecraft.com Til: Martin Storli - LA8OKA arcticp...@yahoo.no Kopi: elecraft@mailman.qth.net elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sendt: Mandag, 10. september 2012 16.45 Emne: Re: [Elecraft] [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/ Slave connection? Martin, The KX3 and K3 do not support Kenwood's master/slave protocol. However, they do support different variations of Elecraft's own master/slave protocol. This allows remote-rig operation with various different hardware configurations. The K3 version of the protocol is extremely fast, and provides virtually 100% emulation of a remote K3 by a local (terminal) K3. The KX3 implementation is at present experimental, but it will provide limited control of a KX3, K3, or K2 (only VFOs, mode, bandwidth, and RIT). I posted on this topic in detail quite recently. 73, Wayne N6KR On Sep 10, 2012, at 5:09 AM, Martin Storli - LA8OKA wrote: Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection? This could be usefull in a SO2R contest operating environment, Multi-Multi contest operating environment and on DXpeditions. (For those of you that aren't familiar with the Kenwood Master/ Slave, it is a system consisting of 2 Kenwood transceivers, where one transceiver is set-up as a master and the other is set-up as a slave, the transceivers are connected with an serial cable, and this set-up alows transfering of the operating frequency from the master transceiver to the slave transceiver. But what have all this Kenwood-stuff to do with Elecraft, you may ask? It's because Kenwood transceivers and Elecraft transceivers both use the Kenwood protokol, they speak the same language you may say.) Martin Storli LA8OKA Oslo, Norway ARCTICPEAK's Radio pages! http://www.arcticpeak.com/radio.htm __ 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 __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help:
[Elecraft] Vedr: Vedr: [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection?
Yes, Joe, you're right about that, and the HDSDR software does just that, it works very well on the KX3. :-) I used it during this weekend WAE SSB contest and it worked very well, it was quite easy to see the stations calling, even the weaker stations calling in between the big guns. Using this I was able to work stations as close as 550 Hz, the TS-590 and the KX3 is pretty good receivers so it was not too difficult to copy stations that where close. It did however affected the QSO-rate, hi, hi. A warning to others, if you plan to do well in a contest, DO NOT get a new toy a few days before the contest, hi, hi!! Martin Storli LA8OKA Oslo, Norway ARCTICPEAK's Radio pages! http://www.arcticpeak.com/radio.htm Fra: Joe Subich, W4TV li...@subich.com Til: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sendt: Mandag, 10. september 2012 17.42 Emne: Re: [Elecraft] Vedr: [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection? But the post only describes what to do on the controlling KX3, what needs to be done in order for the KX3 to receive frequency information? The panadapter software would need to directly control the KX3 based on the primary transceiver's operating frequency (with or without an IF offset). It needs to translate the Kenwood auto-information (or frequency polling) data to the appropriateFA commands to set the KX3 receive frequency as necessary to track the primary transceiver. This is no different than slaving a Flex-1500, Perseus, SDR-IQ, etc. to any other transceiver using an RF splitter (on frequency panadapter - 1500, Perseus, SDR-IQ, etc.) or an IF tap (IF panadapter - LP-Pan, P3, Softrock, SDR-IQ with Spectravue, etc.). 73, ... Joe, W4TV On 9/10/2012 11:07 AM, Martin Storli - LA8OKA wrote: Many thanks Wayne! I have read that post but I didn't realize at the time what I could do with it. :-) (Wayne post so others don't need to do a search: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/KX3-use-as-a-k3-remote-rig-td7562242.html#a7562268 ) The reason I asked about the Kenwood Master/Slave is of course because I have some Kenwoods on the table. But the Autoinformation may be better for my intended use, since no pushing on buttons are necesarry. What I want to try out is to use the KX3 as a panadapter with my TS-2000X or TS-590 as transmitters (because they have 100 watt, and the PA for the KX3 isn't ready), and to do so, the KX3 needs to follow the frequency on the Kenwood transceiver. Remote control of my K2 is also very interesting. :-) I must try that when I have time! But the post only describes what to do on the controlling KX3, what needs to be done in order for the KX3 to receive frequency information? Martin Storli LA8OKA Oslo, Norway ARCTICPEAK's Radio pages! http://www.arcticpeak.com/radio.htm Fra: Wayne Burdick n...@elecraft.com Til: Martin Storli - LA8OKA arcticp...@yahoo.no Kopi: elecraft@mailman.qth.net elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sendt: Mandag, 10. september 2012 16.45 Emne: Re: [Elecraft] [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection? Martin, The KX3 and K3 do not support Kenwood's master/slave protocol. However, they do support different variations of Elecraft's own master/slave protocol. This allows remote-rig operation with various different hardware configurations. The K3 version of the protocol is extremely fast, and provides virtually 100% emulation of a remote K3 by a local (terminal) K3. The KX3 implementation is at present experimental, but it will provide limited control of a KX3, K3, or K2 (only VFOs, mode, bandwidth, and RIT). I posted on this topic in detail quite recently. 73, Wayne N6KR On Sep 10, 2012, at 5:09 AM, Martin Storli - LA8OKA wrote: Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection? This could be usefull in a SO2R contest operating environment, Multi-Multi contest operating environment and on DXpeditions. (For those of you that aren't familiar with the Kenwood Master/Slave, it is a system consisting of 2 Kenwood transceivers, where one transceiver is set-up as a master and the other is set-up as a slave, the transceivers are connected with an serial cable, and this set-up alows transfering of the operating frequency from the master transceiver to the slave transceiver. But what have all this Kenwood-stuff to do with Elecraft, you may ask? It's because Kenwood transceivers and Elecraft transceivers both use the Kenwood protokol, they speak the same language you may say.) Martin Storli LA8OKA Oslo, Norway ARCTICPEAK's Radio pages! http://www.arcticpeak.com/radio.htm __ 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:
Re: [Elecraft] Vedr: Vedr: [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection?
Sell your TS-590 and buy a K3, and you've covered the remaining halfway :) 73, Thomas M0TRN On 10 September 2012 21:12, Martin Storli - LA8OKA arcticp...@yahoo.nowrote: I Just tryed this now, and wow, this is cool!! I now have a remote panel (the KX3) for my TS-590!! :-) I can now tune and change modes on my TS-590 from the KX3. But the KX3 turns of all the receive/transmit functionality so I didn't got any panadapter, and I can't use any of the other unik features of the KX3, so I'm only halfway there. __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] static buildup on antennas
Bill, I do have a Matchbox, but it is not in the shack, All my antennas are resonant, so there is no need for a tuner at the home QTH. The Matchbox serves an an artificial antenna, if I need to devise some strange load to an Elecraft K1, K2, KX1 that I am in process of repairing. Often times a bandpass filter at a specific frequency is needed, and the Matchbox provides that quite nicely. 73, Don W3FPR On 9/10/2012 3:37 PM, Bill K9YEQ wrote: Don, Did I not see a picture of your shack with a Matchbox, or am I thinking of someone else? As sweet as the link coupling is, I would think a servo controlled box could be designed as an automatic unit... perhaps Wayne could be talked into designing one starting at QRP level and eventually designing a QRO linker. 73, Bill K9YEQ -Original Message- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Don Wilhelm Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 1:46 PM To: Ron D'Eau Claire Cc: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] static buildup on antennas Yes, link coupled tuners will solve a lot of those problems. There is no DC path from the antenna to the transceiver. However, those link coupled tuners have been disappearing from the face of the earth at a rapid rate. They are not easily band-switched (the Johnson Matchbox units were an attempt, but the matching rang was limited)/ 73,\ Don W3FPR On 9/10/2012 2:31 PM, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote: It gets tricky when the antenna feed point impedance is several thousand ohms such as I see with my 130 foot inverted L on 80 meters or with the common open wire fed multiband doublets. In those cases it's common to use a resistance of 100K or more to avoid excessive losses in the resistors. But, such large resistances require more time to bleed off the accumulated voltage. At some point they can no longer drain the charge as fast as it accumulates and become ineffective. My favorite tuner for such antennas has always been a link-coupled tuner. No direct-current connection between the antenna and the rig and a d-c path to ground for the antenna at all times. But such tuners are not conducive to fast, automatic operation. 73, Ron AC7AC __ 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 __ 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 __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Swains Island
*Tony, I have worked them on 4 bands so far bbut I have noticed they continually ask for a partial call sign to be repeated. By this I noticed they will ask the station ending in Tango your call? and they do this with almost every call and most of the time on all bands. Listening to the pileup I am able to clearly distinguish quite a few calls and I am not that far away from them by distance. You have to wonder if their job would have been easier IF they were using K3's :-) * On 11 September 2012 00:33, Tony Estep estept...@gmail.com wrote: The NH8S expedition, partly sponsored by Elecraft, has been going strong for a while and will be running until the 19th. Swains Island is the 31st most-needed DX country, according to DX News. They are using KPA500 amps, although not K3s (tsk-tsk). For whatever reason, the pileups have not been too bad, and the ops are excellent. Their site is NH8S.org Tony KT0NY -- http://www.isb.edu/faculty/facultydir.aspx?ddlFaculty=352 __ 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 -- *Gary* *Start the day off slow, then taper off.* K3 #679 KPA500FT #18 KAT500FT 007 P3 #1629 __ 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
[Elecraft] Vedr: Vedr: Vedr: [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection?
Well, not realy, unless I can receive on the KX3 and transmitt on the K3, but with the K3 the P3 will probably be a better sollution anyway. :-) As tempting as a K3 may be, this years radio quota is used. (I'm married, hi, hi... :-) Martin Storli LA8OKA Oslo, Norway ARCTICPEAK's Radio pages! http://www.arcticpeak.com/radio.htm Fra: Thomas Horsten tho...@horsten.com Til: Martin Storli - LA8OKA arcticp...@yahoo.no Kopi: Elecraft Reflector elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sendt: Mandag, 10. september 2012 22.22 Emne: Re: [Elecraft] Vedr: Vedr: [KX3] Does the KX3 support the Kenwood Master/Slave connection? Sell your TS-590 and buy a K3, and you've covered the remaining halfway :) 73, Thomas M0TRN On 10 September 2012 21:12, Martin Storli - LA8OKA arcticp...@yahoo.no wrote: I Just tryed this now, and wow, this is cool!! I now have a remote panel (the KX3) for my TS-590!! :-) I can now tune and change modes on my TS-590 from the KX3. But the KX3 turns of all the receive/transmit functionality so I didn't got any panadapter, and I can't use any of the other unik features of the KX3, so I'm only halfway there. __ 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
[Elecraft] K2 with West Mountain Radio M-8 Rigblaster
Hi Folks, I am still building, actually on the second build of the RF board ;), and I am starting to wonder about using the K2 on Digital Modes. I currently use a West Mountain Radio M-8 Rigblaster with my ( soon to go away) Yaesu FT-897. Does anyone know if I can still use it with the K2? It is an older Rigblaster and it has the optional round 8-pin connector/RJ-45 Square connector on the other end. I guess the main question would be the jumper settings inside the Rigblaster. If anyone has any insight I would appreciate it. It would be Nice to not have to buy another interface after what I just spent on the K2 ;) Also it makes the Wife Happy when I can use my current stuff and not buy More stuff ;) Thanks and 73, Kevin NZ1I K2 # 7632 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 Plasma Question
My neighbor bought a large-screen Plasma TV about 6 months ago. When he's watching it (most of the day!) it blocks out large chunks of 80m and 40M His TV is about 40ft from the middle of my dipole and about 30ft from my gear. FWIW -- Dave G KK7SS Richland, WA KX3 #097 __ 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
[Elecraft] Elecraft SSB Net results (9/9/12)
We had a good net today with decent propagation. We had 37 participants over a 30 minute period. The discussions were on the delay of shipping KAT500 antenna tuners. Have a great week. Here is the list of participants. Station NameQTH Rig S/N KM4IK Ian GA K3 281 N6JWJohnCA K3 936 K4QETonyNC K3 6478 KE5VDT Roger TX K3 6054 W5SXD Richard TX KX3 309 VE6OMC DaveAB TS480 WB6CLZ MikeCA KX3 118 K4GCJ Gerry NC K3 1597 KB9AVO PaulIN KX3 24 W6GFGeorge CA K3 4452 K7BRR BillAZ K3 5545 KN5LJohnTX K3 4448 W4RKS Jim AL K3 3618 WD5MDavid TX K3 6493 N1RXBruce NH K3 559 K1NWBrian RI K3 4974 N4LKE Ron TN K3 6763 W8OVDaveTX K3 3139 W0BBI BillMO K3 6363 NJ6LNealKY K3 4601 WV5IDwayne TX K3 5287 KG6NXX Jon CA TS830 NK6ADon CA KX3 1247 N1JEO/m JoelMA KX3 651 W0SZSteve CO K3 176 K6LMP Lew CA K3 305 WD0EQP GeneNE K3 5799 W5TTF Charlie TX K3 4016 K3RZB Stu CA K3 4610 KF5IMA Bruce MS K2 3575 W6NIA MattCA K3 24 (Also KX3#6) KG6IRW David CA KX3 1592 KE6JV BillCA K3 6299 K6SBA David CA K3 565 WW4JF JohnTN K3 6185 WN4SLG DougTN K3 6433 NS7PPhilOR K3 1826 73, Phil, NS7P ph...@riousa.com __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Swains Island
On Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 3:47 PM, Gary Gregory garyvk...@gmail.com wrote: *You have to wonder if their job would have been easier IF they were using K3's* -- Hmmm. I wouldn't doubt it. Tony KT0NY -- http://www.isb.edu/faculty/facultydir.aspx?ddlFaculty=352 __ 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
[Elecraft] OT: For Sale - Clifton Labs Active Antenna System plus extras
I have for sale a Clifton Labs Active Antenna system plus extras as will be described below. This is a receive-only active whip with a very small footprint and visual impact that is ideal for use with a K3 as a secondary vertically polarized antenna for diversity reception. Specified frequency range is 20 KHz to 30 MHz, but will receive up to 100 MHz with reduced performance. The system has two main components: A remotely located whip with a preamplifier at its base (Z1501D), and an in-shack control unit /antenna coupler (Z1203A). The antenna coupler requires the typical 13.8V nominal DC, but will operate over a wider range. The coupler unit supplies power to the remote preamplifier over the coax interconnecting cable. A control cable between the coupler unit and a transceiver can be used to turn off the antenna amplifier when transmitting (automatic muting). This will easily follow CW keying for QSK. It interfaces well with the K3 for this purpose. This product was designed by Jack Smith, K8Z0A, and is an example of the bullet-proof (both electrically and mechanically) products that he provides. I purchased this system new in 2010 and it has been performing flawlessly in my diversity RX setup. It has been a terrific addition to my CW contesting station which I am now in the process of decommissioning. The amplifier section is very robust. 3rd order output intercept is +40 dBm. 2nd order output intercept +73 dBm. In addition to ham band usage, this antenna is great for SWL and broadcast band listening. For additional information, complete specifications, application notes, photos, etc. see the excellent Clifton Labs website: http://cliftonlaboratories.com The black whip antenna is adjustable from 22 to 112 inches in length so that you can adjust it for the sensitivity you desire. The whip and amplifier assembly can be mounted to a vertical pipe from 1 to 2 inches in diameter with the supplied U bolts. Or it can be screwed to a post or fence. I had mine attached to a perimeter wooden fence mounted about 6 ft above ground and it worked very well. I painted the external amplifier and mounting bracket with a textured medium gray/brown paint which gives a very stealth appearance if you live in an antenna restricted location such as mine. The transmitter control cable is terminated in RCA connectors. The power cable is set up with a PowerPole plug. All the signal cable connectors are BNC. The length and type of cable between the two units is very non-critical. It can be either 50 or 75 ohm. I used a combination of RG-58 and RG-8X, but even smaller cable such as RG-174 could be used as well as CATV 75 ohm cable. I added a three position switch and a yellow LED to the antenna coupler unit. The switch allows for manually turning the antenna on or off as well as using the automatic control for muting from a transmitter. The yellow LED shows the power state of the antenna amplifier itself, while the standard green LED shows when DC is connected to the unit. This setup provides some additional operational flexibility compared to the stock arrangement. I also designed and built some common-mode chokes to use in the coax between the two units. This addition, while not absolutely required, will allow for enhanced common-mode rejection of strong local signals. There is one small choke directly at the output of the remote amplifier. I am also supplying two other larger chokes, each packaged in water resistant enclosures with BNC connectors. Each of these chokes is comprised of 6 turns of coax on two type 31 large beads (Fair-rite PN 2631102002). This provides very good common-mode rejection from below 500 KHz to over 30 MHz. Test data are supplied. I mounted one of these midway in the coax run and the second one just before the coax entered the house. Each of these chokes has a connection to the coax shield on both sides of the inductor. These can be used to easily connect any of these points to a ground rod. This connection can be used to optimize the overall common-mode rejection, but experimentation will be require d as a function of your location, system layout and frequency of the common-mode signal you are trying to minimize. In my case, I had two of these points tied to ground. Note that the system will work well in most all cases without using any of these chokes! Your purchase includes the whip, remote antenna amplifier, in-shack antenna coupler/control unit, mounting hardware, all manuals and documentation, schematics, DC power cable, control cable for muting when transmitting, and the three common-mode chokes. You need only supply the coax interconnecting cable(s). This system currently sells for $290. My price is $200. PayPal only, please. Shipping via insured ground UPS should be from $15 to $20 depending on your lower 48 QTH. Provide your zip and I can give you the exact amount. If interested,
Re: [Elecraft] Swains Island
I think that Icom is getting tired of seeing the K3's being the preferred rig for dxpeditions and decided to provide the IC-7600's for the Swains Island dxpedition in hopes of improving their image. :-) Bob K6UJ On Sep 10, 2012, at 1:47 PM, Gary Gregory wrote: *Tony, I have worked them on 4 bands so far bbut I have noticed they continually ask for a partial call sign to be repeated. By this I noticed they will ask the station ending in Tango your call? and they do this with almost every call and most of the time on all bands. Listening to the pileup I am able to clearly distinguish quite a few calls and I am not that far away from them by distance. You have to wonder if their job would have been easier IF they were using K3's :-) * On 11 September 2012 00:33, Tony Estep estept...@gmail.com wrote: The NH8S expedition, partly sponsored by Elecraft, has been going strong for a while and will be running until the 19th. Swains Island is the 31st most-needed DX country, according to DX News. They are using KPA500 amps, although not K3s (tsk-tsk). For whatever reason, the pileups have not been too bad, and the ops are excellent. Their site is NH8S.org Tony KT0NY -- http://www.isb.edu/faculty/facultydir.aspx?ddlFaculty=352 __ 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 -- *Gary* *Start the day off slow, then taper off.* K3 #679 KPA500FT #18 KAT500FT 007 P3 #1629 __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 Plasma Question
I also had a Plasma TV, a 42 inch Visio purchased many years ago, and had the terrible RFI problem on 80 meters especially. My 80 meter dipole hangs across the house , one leg over the plasma. I never operated much in the lower bands where the RFI was worse, but figured I would eventually get a LCD or LED TV and the problem would go away. Well, the day came and I was itching to get a larger screen TV. I saw another Visio (they have good clear displays), so I thought I would opt for a LCD 55 incher. i had forgotten about the RFI problem with the plasma, but heck, this is a LCD so it should not have any problem. I got it home and really liked it. Well, as you might expect, I was on 80 meters working some CW one night and on the P3, I saw these little spikes, maybe 160 KHz apart (-85 dBm +/- a few dB). I hollered at my wife to turn off the TV and well, you guessed it, the spikes went away. So, in my case, an LCD TV does have some RFI, although not as much as the plasma. Interesting, a 32 inch LCD Visio in the shack has no RFI as best I can tell and the dipole goes directly over the shack. - Roger W5RDW -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/K3-Plasma-Question-tp7562401p7562432.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:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] K3 JT 65-HF transmit?
Joe and Matt, Tnx for the input.. Check the Main menu and Line In was set...changed to rPL and still no xmit...keys but nothing comes out...went back to Line IN and tried changing the Line Level from 10 to 30 to 100; still nothing comes out, although it does keythis is noted by 'SC' Line and PTT2 LEDs lite when rig keys... K3 works perfectly with Logger 32 and MMTTY and MMVari for RTTY and PSK. Checked the settings on mH mK II and the key from rear is selected and Sound card PTT is unchecked, just like the mK II set up guide directs... What else do you recommend that I look for? 73 Tom CX7TT __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Swains Island
*(TIC)well all I can say is that is not working...:-) I was very surprised to hear very good operators NOT being able to distinguish call signs over and over again. I thought it was me so I went up to listen in the pileup from JA and granted they are sometimes S9+20 with the 'weaker' ones @ S9 BUT I am able to hear several call signs clearly and I wrote them down as I listened. I mentioned this to another K3 owner with 59 years experience (I'm a relative newbie at this) and he cam back after several minutes and made the same comment. Whilst I don't want to come across as too biased, I was just making an observation based on my perception. I will say that here their audio is excellent and the operators are extremely patient and polite. So Kudo's to all the operators I have heard so far. I do find it interesting when I think back to some recent Dxpeditions and the way the operators could grab full call signs and were logging stations quickly. From memory most of these were using K3's and the pileups were pretty chaotic as usual. Worked them on 80/20/15 and 10M but the WARC bands are proving problematical for me with just a dipole to work with against the pileup..:-( 73 * On 11 September 2012 07:29, Bob K6UJ k...@pacbell.net wrote: I think that Icom is getting tired of seeing the K3's being the preferred rig for dxpeditions and decided to provide the IC-7600's for the Swains Island dxpedition in hopes of improving their image. :-) Bob K6UJ On Sep 10, 2012, at 1:47 PM, Gary Gregory wrote: *Tony, I have worked them on 4 bands so far bbut I have noticed they continually ask for a partial call sign to be repeated. By this I noticed they will ask the station ending in Tango your call? and they do this with almost every call and most of the time on all bands. Listening to the pileup I am able to clearly distinguish quite a few calls and I am not that far away from them by distance. You have to wonder if their job would have been easier IF they were using K3's :-) * On 11 September 2012 00:33, Tony Estep estept...@gmail.com wrote: The NH8S expedition, partly sponsored by Elecraft, has been going strong for a while and will be running until the 19th. Swains Island is the 31st most-needed DX country, according to DX News. They are using KPA500 amps, although not K3s (tsk-tsk). For whatever reason, the pileups have not been too bad, and the ops are excellent. Their site is NH8S.org Tony KT0NY -- http://www.isb.edu/faculty/facultydir.aspx?ddlFaculty=352 __ 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 -- *Gary* *Start the day off slow, then taper off.* K3 #679 KPA500FT #18 KAT500FT 007 P3 #1629 __ 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 __ 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 -- *Gary* *Start the day off slow, then taper off.* K3 #679 KPA500FT #18 KAT500FT 007 P3 #1629 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] XV144 XV50: LED brightness
Thank you, Jim, that does make a great deal of sense. Many thanks for taking the trouble of replying. 73 de David G4DMP In a recent message, Jim Miller KG0KP jimmil...@stl-online.net writes [snip] There is no doubt that the LEDs they were getting in 2004 have been discontinued with brighter and lower current drain being the ones of today. [snip] - Original Message - From: David G4DMP [snip] The LEDs on the, later, XV50 are very much brighter than the earlier XV144. Both have exactly the same supply voltage of 13.95V. [snip] -- + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + | David M Pratt, Kippax, Leeds. | | Website: http://www.g4dmp.co.uk | + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + -- + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + | David M Pratt, Kippax, Leeds. | | Website: http://www.g4dmp.co.uk | + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 JT 65-HF transmit?
On Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 4:46 PM, cx...@4email.net wrote: What else do you recommend that I look for? === Tom, make sure your PC is generating audio out. Unplug the audio cable from the PC's line out and try to transmit. You should hear the audio tones coming out the speaker. If your K3 is set correctly and the PC is making audio, then the problem is that it is getting lost in whatever is between them. Whenever anyone posts a problem like yours, I always recommend the same thing: first, get it working with no interface. The K3 does not require a Microham or a Rigblaster or a Signalink or anything else to do digital modes. Take it out, hook the K3 to the PC with audio cables and key the K3 via CAT, and get your digital modes working that way. Then if you wish to re-insert an interface into your setup, you will more easily pinpoint problems if they arise. Tony KT0NY -- http://www.isb.edu/faculty/facultydir.aspx?ddlFaculty=352 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] static buildup on antennas
Thanks, everyone. Perhaps I should have emphasised the word *balun* in my original post by describing what I was using. I modified an MFJ-949 transmatch by replacing the original 4:1 balun by a 9:1 Guanella. One terminal of each side of that balun transformer is/was tied to ground in either case. 73, Gary VE1RGB -Original Message- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Fred Jensen Sent: September 10, 2012 5:01 PM To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] static buildup on antennas Comments interspersed since you asked questions. On 9/10/2012 11:19 AM, gary bartlett wrote: Can someone comment on this issue as it relates to balanced wire antennas like dipoles fed with ladder line and matched to a K3 receiver through a balun? Doesn't matter, so long as the antenna is not at DC ground. A grounded, shunt fed tower is at DC ground. A dipole strung between it and an organic tower isn't. Is the problem with discharges from precipitation and other static electricity sources with that feed configuration the same as for coax feed? Essentially, yes. (Yes, I recognize, lightning would be a different issue.) For that matter, how does the K3 transmatch figure into the equation in terms of protecting the receiver from unfriendly charge build-ups (both when the radio is powered up and when powered off)? Powered or non-powered, doesn't matter. My K3 has a static bleed resistor inside, I also have 100K's [I think, maybe 50K] on coax tee's on the antenna connectors. If the concerns are the same for both types of transmission line, what is the protection configuration external to the radio for the ladderline situation? Well, pretty much the same only not quite as convenient as the PL-259/coax tee solution. Just put a 100K to ground from both sides of the balanced line. If you have a balun in your configuration, it's possible that it will DC ground your antenna through a center-tap. It's easy enough to test. We can talk this into way more of a problem than it really is, as Don mentioned, and possibly is happening. The so called fair weather field of 100-200 V/m means nothing, its source impedance is so high that it delivers essentially zero current. I'm 6'2 [1.87m] so standing outside, the potential of my head should be a few hundred volts above my feet. In fact, I'm a short circuit and it is zero or extremely close to it. Precip static is a problem only if your antenna input on the radio is DC insulated from ground. The individual charges deposited in the antenna are very tiny but they add up in the input capacitance and the potential slowly ratchets up. The no-more-stress solution is just put a bleed resistor on all your antennas, leave it there, and move on to working NH8S on all bands. :-) 73, Fred K6DGW - Northern California Contest Club - CU in the 2012 Cal QSO Party 6-7 Oct 2012 - www.cqp.org __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Swains Island
Atmospherics can play a big part in intelligibility that no rx can resolve. On T32C I had what I think would be called whispering galleries: the signal circled the world a few times filling in gaps with each pass, so all I heard was a continuous tone. This went on for almost all of a 4 hour shift as the caller tried to get in. Near the end of my shift it started to break up and I could hear all the elements of his call and worked him immediately. He was a good signal. I'm not saying that was the cause here, but I did learn a lesson. David G3UNA - Original Message - From: Gary Gregory garyvk...@gmail.com To: Bob K6UJ k...@pacbell.net Cc: Elecraft elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 9:51 PM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Swains Island *(TIC)well all I can say is that is not working...:-) I was very surprised to hear very good operators NOT being able to distinguish call signs over and over again. I thought it was me so I went up to listen in the pileup from JA and granted they are sometimes S9+20 with the 'weaker' ones @ S9 BUT I am able to hear several call signs clearly and I wrote them down as I listened. I mentioned this to another K3 owner with 59 years experience (I'm a relative newbie at this) and he cam back after several minutes and made the same comment. Whilst I don't want to come across as too biased, I was just making an observation based on my perception. I will say that here their audio is excellent and the operators are extremely patient and polite. So Kudo's to all the operators I have heard so far. I do find it interesting when I think back to some recent Dxpeditions and the way the operators could grab full call signs and were logging stations quickly. From memory most of these were using K3's and the pileups were pretty chaotic as usual. Worked them on 80/20/15 and 10M but the WARC bands are proving problematical for me with just a dipole to work with against the pileup..:-( 73 * On 11 September 2012 07:29, Bob K6UJ k...@pacbell.net wrote: I think that Icom is getting tired of seeing the K3's being the preferred rig for dxpeditions and decided to provide the IC-7600's for the Swains Island dxpedition in hopes of improving their image. :-) Bob K6UJ On Sep 10, 2012, at 1:47 PM, Gary Gregory wrote: *Tony, I have worked them on 4 bands so far bbut I have noticed they continually ask for a partial call sign to be repeated. By this I noticed they will ask the station ending in Tango your call? and they do this with almost every call and most of the time on all bands. Listening to the pileup I am able to clearly distinguish quite a few calls and I am not that far away from them by distance. You have to wonder if their job would have been easier IF they were using K3's :-) * On 11 September 2012 00:33, Tony Estep estept...@gmail.com wrote: The NH8S expedition, partly sponsored by Elecraft, has been going strong for a while and will be running until the 19th. Swains Island is the 31st most-needed DX country, according to DX News. They are using KPA500 amps, although not K3s (tsk-tsk). For whatever reason, the pileups have not been too bad, and the ops are excellent. Their site is NH8S.org Tony KT0NY -- http://www.isb.edu/faculty/facultydir.aspx?ddlFaculty=352 __ 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 -- *Gary* *Start the day off slow, then taper off.* K3 #679 KPA500FT #18 KAT500FT 007 P3 #1629 __ 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 __ 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 -- *Gary* *Start the day off slow, then taper off.* K3 #679 KPA500FT #18 KAT500FT 007 P3 #1629 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 JT 65-HF transmit?
Tony, brilliant advice! I also cant understand why anyone would waste money on an interface for use with a K3 when one is not needed, and I have done every data mode out there incl JT-65 with the K3 direct to PC. A ext good quality usb soundcard is handy, but that's about it. A German ham emailed me with a similar problem and I told him the same thing and he was astounded at the fact the K3 does not need an interface, Everything you need is built in, and now he is a very happy camper. Take the mickey-ham-ears out and try direct OM. Adrian ... vk4tux Tom, make sure your PC is generating audio out. Unplug the audio cable from the PC's line out and try to transmit. You should hear the audio tones coming out the speaker. If your K3 is set correctly and the PC is making audio, then the problem is that it is getting lost in whatever is between them. Whenever anyone posts a problem like yours, I always recommend the same thing: first, get it working with no interface. The K3 does not require a Microham or a Rigblaster or a Signalink or anything else to do digital modes. Take it out, hook the K3 to the PC with audio cables and key the K3 via CAT, and get your digital modes working that way. Then if you wish to re-insert an interface into your setup, you will more easily pinpoint problems if they arise. Tony KT0NY -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/K3-JT-65-HF-transmit-tp7562398p7562438.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:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] K3 Plasma Question
Anytime there is high-speed digital logic in operation there is RFI being generated. After all, those logic signals are no different from a square wave RF signal, and being square waves means they have very high levels of harmonic energy across the spectrum. The big difference is that a plasma panel generates high-energy RFI directly in the display which then radiates it through the screen. As you noted, the level of RFI will be much lower with LCD sets and, in many cases, can be suppressed further with proper treatment of the various wires leading to and from the set. 73, Ron AC7AC -Original Message- I also had a Plasma TV, a 42 inch Visio purchased many years ago, and had the terrible RFI problem on 80 meters especially. My 80 meter dipole hangs across the house , one leg over the plasma. I never operated much in the lower bands where the RFI was worse, but figured I would eventually get a LCD or LED TV and the problem would go away. Well, the day came and I was itching to get a larger screen TV. I saw another Visio (they have good clear displays), so I thought I would opt for a LCD 55 incher. i had forgotten about the RFI problem with the plasma, but heck, this is a LCD so it should not have any problem. I got it home and really liked it. Well, as you might expect, I was on 80 meters working some CW one night and on the P3, I saw these little spikes, maybe 160 KHz apart (-85 dBm +/- a few dB). I hollered at my wife to turn off the TV and well, you guessed it, the spikes went away. So, in my case, an LCD TV does have some RFI, although not as much as the plasma. Interesting, a 32 inch LCD Visio in the shack has no RFI as best I can tell and the dipole goes directly over the shack. - Roger W5RDW -- __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 Plasma Question
It took me a year to track down the horrible racket from a plasma set. 80 meters was just wiped out. Finally I traced it to my next door neighbor who bought a 60 Samsung Plasma about the same time my QRM started. I took my portable radio over and it totally wipes out everything on all bands. The RFI comes off the face of the screen, not the power supply so no amount of filtering will help. I bought the MFJ noise canceling device, 1026 as I recall. It works great but of course just something more to fiddle with. Without the bandscope it would be really hard to find the nulls. One setting took care of all bands! I rearranged my antennas and away from his house so that helped a tad but I can still hear it. I had a close relationship with Samsung because I bought thoursands of their sets for the bank I worked for. I talked to the sales rep and it was a waste of time. Eventually the neighbor became uncooperative. steve N4LQ - Original Message - From: Jim Bennett w6...@mac.com To: Elecraft Reflector Reflector elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 1:57 PM Subject: [Elecraft] K3 Plasma Question This is only slightly off-topic, but since I do operate a K3, it still fits - kinda! We have two plasma TV's in our home. One is a ten year old Sony 42 inch unit. The other one is a two year old Samsung 63 inch TV. They are about 50 feet from the shack, and only eight feet away from each other - two different rooms. The Sony has never, ever caused any sort of QRN on any of the ham bands. Because of that, we purchased the Samsung unit right after moving into this QTH. I did not have an HF antenna installed for several months after moving in - when I finally did get one put up, I saw some ugly QRN on most of the HF bands. However, at the time I was not aware of the plasma effect that I am now. When I heard the QRN, I assumed it to be from the PGE high power lines that are pretty close to the house. By the time I put two two together and figured out that the ugly noise was from this Samsung TV, it was already out of warranty. Ughhh…. We are now in the market for another TV, and have been looking at a very nice Panasonic 65 Plasma set, model TC-P65VT50. I've already told the Best Buy sales manager that IF we do buy it and IF it causes QRN to the HF bands, it is coming right back. He said that is no problem. But, if I can query this group to see if anyone else has one of these TV's, I may be able to avert a lot of work ahead of time. Our second choice would be an LED set, but after seeing plasma and LED side by side, playing the exact same content, I want to stay with plasma - BUT ONLY IF IT DOESNT SCREW UP THE K3!!! So, is there anyone in this group who has a Panasonic TC-P65VT50 TV who can say yes or no to the QRN issue? Thanks, Jim / W6JHB __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Swains Island
Unfortunately, comments of that nature do not improve the Icom image over the K3. It may be that Icom is providing the transceivers for the DXPedition, but tha says nothing about the performance of the transceivers The K3 continues to reign high on the list of transceivers fit and eligible for DXpedition use. . 73, Don W3FPR On 9/10/2012 5:29 PM, Bob K6UJ wrote: I think that Icom is getting tired of seeing the K3's being the preferred rig for dxpeditions and decided to provide the IC-7600's for the Swains Island dxpedition in hopes of improving their image. :-) Bob K6UJ On Sep 10, 2012, at 1:47 PM, Gary Gregory wrote: *Tony, I have worked them on 4 bands so far bbut I have noticed they continually ask for a partial call sign to be repeated. By this I noticed they will ask the station ending in Tango your call? and they do this with almost every call and most of the time on all bands. Listening to the pileup I am able to clearly distinguish quite a few calls and I am not that far away from them by distance. You have to wonder if their job would have been easier IF they were using K3's :-) * On 11 September 2012 00:33, Tony Estep estept...@gmail.com wrote: The NH8S expedition, partly sponsored by Elecraft, has been going strong for a while and will be running until the 19th. Swains Island is the 31st most-needed DX country, according to DX News. They are using KPA500 amps, although not K3s (tsk-tsk). For whatever reason, the pileups have not been too bad, and the ops are excellent. Their site is NH8S.org Tony KT0NY -- http://www.isb.edu/faculty/facultydir.aspx?ddlFaculty=352 __ 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 -- *Gary* *Start the day off slow, then taper off.* K3 #679 KPA500FT #18 KAT500FT 007 P3 #1629 __ 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 __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 Plasma Question
Experiences in the UK and across Europe are that Panasonic Viera Plasma TV's are particularly bad at causing interference to the radio spectrum. There are more energy efficient and pollution free alternatives available. 73 Stewart G3RXQ On Mon, 10 Sep 2012 10:57:11 -0700, Jim Bennett wrote: This is only slightly off-topic, but since I do operate a K3, it still fits - kinda! We have two plasma TV's in our home. One is a ten year old Sony 42 inch unit. The other one is a two year old Samsung 63 inch TV. They are about 50 feet from the shack, and only eight feet away from each other - two different rooms. The Sony has never, ever caused any sort of QRN on any of the ham bands. Because of that, we purchased the Samsung unit right after moving into this QTH. I did not have an HF antenna installed for several months after moving in - when I finally did get one put up, I saw some ugly QRN on most of the HF bands. However, at the time I was not aware of the plasma effect that I am now. When I heard the QRN, I assumed it to be from the PGE high power lines that are pretty close to the house. By the time I put two two together and figured out that the ugly noise was from this Samsung TV, it was already out of warranty. Ughhh We are now in the market for another TV, and have been looking at a very nice Panasonic 65 Plasma set, model TC-P65VT50. I've already told the Best Buy sales manager that IF we do buy it and IF it causes QRN to the HF bands, it is coming right back. He said that is no problem. But, if I can query this group to see if anyone else has one of these TV's, I may be able to avert a lot of work ahead of time. Our second choice would be an LED set, but after seeing plasma and LED side by side, playing the exact same content, I want to stay with plasma - BUT ONLY IF IT DOESNT SCREW UP THE K3!!! So, is there anyone in this group who has a Panasonic TC-P65VT50 TV who can say yes or no to the QRN issue? Thanks, Jim / W6JHB __ 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 __ 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
[Elecraft] Ground Rods
*Interesting discussion locally here in VK. Is there any advantage in having the Copper ground rod surrounded by concrete over having the rod driven 6 feet straight into the earth? Hope this doesn't get too far off topic or develop into a prolonged discussion but I realised I didn't know the answer if there is one. 73 * -- *Gary* *Start the day off slow, then taper off.* K3 #679 KPA500FT #18 KAT500FT 007 P3 #1629 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Swains Island
Gary, The operator himself is a large part of the equation I believe, but then again they have very good operators... We have 9 days to go and they way they are knocking out the Q's you will undoubtedly do well in a few more days on the WARC bands. They will be calling CQ and falling asleep at the mike hihi 73, Bob K6UJ On Sep 10, 2012, at 2:51 PM, Gary Gregory wrote: (TIC)well all I can say is that is not working...:-) I was very surprised to hear very good operators NOT being able to distinguish call signs over and over again. I thought it was me so I went up to listen in the pileup from JA and granted they are sometimes S9+20 with the 'weaker' ones @ S9 BUT I am able to hear several call signs clearly and I wrote them down as I listened. I mentioned this to another K3 owner with 59 years experience (I'm a relative newbie at this) and he cam back after several minutes and made the same comment. Whilst I don't want to come across as too biased, I was just making an observation based on my perception. I will say that here their audio is excellent and the operators are extremely patient and polite. So Kudo's to all the operators I have heard so far. I do find it interesting when I think back to some recent Dxpeditions and the way the operators could grab full call signs and were logging stations quickly. From memory most of these were using K3's and the pileups were pretty chaotic as usual. Worked them on 80/20/15 and 10M but the WARC bands are proving problematical for me with just a dipole to work with against the pileup..:-( 73 On 11 September 2012 07:29, Bob K6UJ k...@pacbell.net wrote: I think that Icom is getting tired of seeing the K3's being the preferred rig for dxpeditions and decided to provide the IC-7600's for the Swains Island dxpedition in hopes of improving their image. :-) Bob K6UJ On Sep 10, 2012, at 1:47 PM, Gary Gregory wrote: *Tony, I have worked them on 4 bands so far bbut I have noticed they continually ask for a partial call sign to be repeated. By this I noticed they will ask the station ending in Tango your call? and they do this with almost every call and most of the time on all bands. Listening to the pileup I am able to clearly distinguish quite a few calls and I am not that far away from them by distance. You have to wonder if their job would have been easier IF they were using K3's :-) * On 11 September 2012 00:33, Tony Estep estept...@gmail.com wrote: The NH8S expedition, partly sponsored by Elecraft, has been going strong for a while and will be running until the 19th. Swains Island is the 31st most-needed DX country, according to DX News. They are using KPA500 amps, although not K3s (tsk-tsk). For whatever reason, the pileups have not been too bad, and the ops are excellent. Their site is NH8S.org Tony KT0NY -- http://www.isb.edu/faculty/facultydir.aspx?ddlFaculty=352 __ 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 -- *Gary* *Start the day off slow, then taper off.* K3 #679 KPA500FT #18 KAT500FT 007 P3 #1629 __ 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 __ 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 -- Gary Start the day off slow, then taper off. K3 #679 KPA500FT #18 KAT500FT 007 P3 #1629 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 JT 65-HF transmit?
Take the mickey-ham-ears out and try direct OM. First. the microHAM microKEYER II is a high quality external sound card with lower noise floor and higher dynamic range than standard OEM sound cards in many computers and better performance than the commodity USB sound cards used by many - including some of the 'made for ham radio' USB sound products. In addition, most microHAM interfaces provide USB to serial rig control interfaces, many include a K1EL WinKey based keyer, *true FSK* support rather than a jitter prone software hack and several other station control options (including isolated Icom CI-V transceive emulation which allows automatic band switching of the Icom PW-1 from most non-Icom transceivers). There is no reason for you to be disagreeable about other users choices in accessories. While you may find something unnecessary, others may have good reasons for using them. 73, ... Joe Subich, W4TV microHAM America, LLC. http://www.microHAM-USA.com http://groups.yahoo.com/group/microHAM On 9/10/2012 6:09 PM, vk4tux wrote: Tony, brilliant advice! I also cant understand why anyone would waste money on an interface for use with a K3 when one is not needed, and I have done every data mode out there incl JT-65 with the K3 direct to PC. A ext good quality usb soundcard is handy, but that's about it. A German ham emailed me with a similar problem and I told him the same thing and he was astounded at the fact the K3 does not need an interface, Everything you need is built in, and now he is a very happy camper. Take the mickey-ham-ears out and try direct OM. Adrian ... vk4tux Tom, make sure your PC is generating audio out. Unplug the audio cable from the PC's line out and try to transmit. You should hear the audio tones coming out the speaker. If your K3 is set correctly and the PC is making audio, then the problem is that it is getting lost in whatever is between them. Whenever anyone posts a problem like yours, I always recommend the same thing: first, get it working with no interface. The K3 does not require a Microham or a Rigblaster or a Signalink or anything else to do digital modes. Take it out, hook the K3 to the PC with audio cables and key the K3 via CAT, and get your digital modes working that way. Then if you wish to re-insert an interface into your setup, you will more easily pinpoint problems if they arise. Tony KT0NY -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/K3-JT-65-HF-transmit-tp7562398p7562438.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:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Wireless Keyboard
Some have incorrectly interpreted the email below to imply that we are adding mouse support to the P3. I believe W0EB was just referring to our upcoming official release for P3SVGA -keyboard- support, but since he mentioned that a mouse was part of his keyboard, some thought that mouse support is also included in our new P3 software. Adding mouse support was not part of our original design and is a significant amount of work. At this time we are maxed out on other projects and are not planning on adding mouse support to the P3. Via its front panel knob, the P3 does have excellent cursor control that can jump the K3 to the cursor's frequency by pressing the knob in lightly to activate its switch. Both VFO A and B can be independently controlled by the 'A' and 'B' cursors in the P3. 73, Eric --- www.elecraft.com On 8/31/2012 6:20 PM, Jim Sheldon wrote: To whoever listed the Logitech 360 wireless keyboard as being compatible with the P3/SVGA board, THANKS! Picked one up at the local Walmart this evening. Plugged it in, pulled the battery tab as directed and it works just fine. Had some problem with several wired Kb's being susceptible to even low levels of RF in the shack. The Logitech hasn't shown any problems even with moderate SWR levels and 500 watts out. This much output with anything over 1.5:1 SWR would lock up most other wired keyboards I had on hand. I bout the mk360 version that contains the mouse as well and will keep the mouse standing by until Elecraft releases the firmware that Eric was reportedly doing a test/demo on at a recent hamfest. Having mouse capability as well as the KB will really make the P3/SVGA combo sing. W0EB __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Ground Rods
Hi Gary, Interesting discussion. Depends on what type of soil, but as a general rule for lightning is much better with multiple rods deep into dirt (9ft +) with spacing distance between rods equal or bigger than the rod length. I've seen grounding installed close around a concrete structure cracking the concrete base on a direct hit. Many hams are literally pushing a 3ft rod into dirt, inefficient, my opinion is to prepare the grounding before and salt it periodically. Here is a good document, is a must to be read for the ones with lightning activity. http://members.rennlist.org/warren/ground.pdf vy73 de VE3GNO Daniel From: Gary Gregory garyvk...@gmail.com To: Elecraft elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 6:30:52 PM Subject: [Elecraft] Ground Rods *Interesting discussion locally here in VK. Is there any advantage in having the Copper ground rod surrounded by concrete over having the rod driven 6 feet straight into the earth? Hope this doesn't get too far off topic or develop into a prolonged discussion but I realised I didn't know the answer if there is one. 73 * -- *Gary* *Start the day off slow, then taper off.* K3 #679 KPA500FT #18 KAT500FT 007 P3 #1629 __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 JT 65-HF transmit?
Tom, The K3 keeps separate input selections and input gain by mode ... Make sure the K3 is in DATA A, and while in that mode make sure Line In is selected and check the input level (mic gain). The menu Line Level is receive - not transmit. Also make sure you have selected Line Input (rear) for FSK/DIGITAL in Router's audio switching tab and confirm that you have selected Headset Earphone (microHAM CODEC) as the Sound Output Device on the Station Setup tab in the JT65-HF configuration dialog (assuming you are using JT65-HF and not WSJT). If you can run PSK31/63 and MFSK with MMVARI there should be no difference in running JT65-HF. 73, ... Joe, W4TV On 9/10/2012 5:46 PM, cx...@4email.net wrote: Joe and Matt, Tnx for the input.. Check the Main menu and Line In was set...changed to rPL and still no xmit...keys but nothing comes out...went back to Line IN and tried changing the Line Level from 10 to 30 to 100; still nothing comes out, although it does keythis is noted by 'SC' Line and PTT2 LEDs lite when rig keys... K3 works perfectly with Logger 32 and MMTTY and MMVari for RTTY and PSK. Checked the settings on mH mK II and the key from rear is selected and Sound card PTT is unchecked, just like the mK II set up guide directs... What else do you recommend that I look for? 73 Tom CX7TT __ 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 __ 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
[Elecraft] K3 Help with SSB+CW on 6 meters
I could use a little help on using the SSB+CW feature of CONFIG:CW WGHT. I tapped 1 and I am able to send CW while in USB. I don't fully understand the offset explanation of the 5 button. Then there is a suggestion to use REV CW but if I'm in USB pressing ALT will change me to LSB. Should I have previously gone to CW mode and pressed ALT prior to going to USB. 73, Mike K2MK -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/K3-Help-with-SSB-CW-on-6-meters-tp7562446.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:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] Ground Rods
Gary, As far as I know, the conductivity of earth and concrete are quite similar, so it should make little difference. 73, Don W3FPR On 9/10/2012 6:30 PM, Gary Gregory wrote: *Interesting discussion locally here in VK. Is there any advantage in having the Copper ground rod surrounded by concrete over having the rod driven 6 feet straight into the earth? Hope this doesn't get too far off topic or develop into a prolonged discussion but I realised I didn't know the answer if there is one. 73 * __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] KAP 500 Help PS
Do you have the aux cable attached? -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/KAP-500-Help-PS-tp7562355p7562450.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:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] Ground Rods
Yes, interesting subject. I did a different approach with the new house. The main drain line for the roof water had to be in a trench and because of the elevation, it had to be DEEP so when the drain lines were put in I included two separate #4 copper lines. Total feet 200+. All station grounds are with copper strap from a common point in the basement to the operating position. Up 10 feet. All else is locally grounded with rods as necessary. I only point this out for those who are building a new home. THINK RADIO. Cheers, Mel K6KBE --- On Mon, 9/10/12, VE3GNO Daniel yo3...@yahoo.com wrote: From: VE3GNO Daniel yo3...@yahoo.com Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Ground Rods To: Gary Gregory garyvk...@gmail.com, Elecraft elecraft@mailman.qth.net Date: Monday, September 10, 2012, 4:18 PM Hi Gary, Interesting discussion. Depends on what type of soil, but as a general rule for lightning is much better with multiple rods deep into dirt (9ft +) with spacing distance between rods equal or bigger than the rod length. I've seen grounding installed close around a concrete structure cracking the concrete base on a direct hit. Many hams are literally pushing a 3ft rod into dirt, inefficient, my opinion is to prepare the grounding before and salt it periodically. Here is a good document, is a must to be read for the ones with lightning activity. http://members.rennlist.org/warren/ground.pdf vy73 de VE3GNO Daniel From: Gary Gregory garyvk...@gmail.com To: Elecraft elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 6:30:52 PM Subject: [Elecraft] Ground Rods *Interesting discussion locally here in VK. Is there any advantage in having the Copper ground rod surrounded by concrete over having the rod driven 6 feet straight into the earth? Hope this doesn't get too far off topic or develop into a prolonged discussion but I realised I didn't know the answer if there is one. 73 * -- *Gary* *Start the day off slow, then taper off.* K3 #679 KPA500FT #18 KAT500FT 007 P3 #1629 __ 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 __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 Plasma Question
Time to end the OT Plasma thread to keep list signal to noise under control. Thread Summary: Plasma TVs = Bad Interference ;-) [end of Thread] 73, Eric List moderator --- www.elecraft.com On 9/10/2012 3:27 PM, Stewart wrote: Experiences in the UK and across Europe are that Panasonic Viera Plasma TV's are particularly bad at causing interference to the radio spectrum. There are more energy efficient and pollution free alternatives available. 73 Stewart G3RXQ On Mon, 10 Sep 2012 10:57:11 -0700, Jim Bennett wrote: This is only slightly off-topic, but since I do operate a K3, it still fits - kinda! We have two plasma TV's in our home. One is a ten year old Sony 42 inch unit. The other one is a two year old Samsung 63 inch TV. They are about 50 feet from the shack, and only eight feet away from each other - two different rooms. The Sony has never, ever caused any sort of QRN on any of the ham bands. Because of that, we purchased the Samsung unit right after moving into this QTH. I did not have an HF antenna installed for several months after moving in - when I finally did get one put up, I saw some ugly QRN on most of the HF bands. However, at the time I was not aware of the plasma effect that I am now. When I heard the QRN, I assumed it to be from the PGE high power lines that are pretty close to the house. By the time I put two two together and figured out that the ugly noise was from this Samsung TV, it was already out of warranty. Ughhh We are now in the market for another TV, and have been looking at a very nice Panasonic 65 Plasma set, model TC-P65VT50. I've already told the Best Buy sales manager that IF we do buy it and IF it causes QRN to the HF bands, it is coming right back. He said that is no problem. But, if I can query this group to see if anyone else has one of these TV's, I may be able to avert a lot of work ahead of time. Our second choice would be an LED set, but after seeing plasma and LED side by side, playing the exact same content, I want to stay with plasma - BUT ONLY IF IT DOESNT SCREW UP THE K3!!! So, is there anyone in this group who has a Panasonic TC-P65VT50 TV who can say yes or no to the QRN issue? Thanks, Jim / W6JHB __ 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 __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] OT: For Sale - Clifton Labs Active Antenna System plus extras
The Clifton Labs antenna has been sold. 73 Craig AC0DS __ 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
[Elecraft] Swains Is
This morning I wrkd them on 40m SSB from Tn with my trusty K3/KPA500 Hytower vertical. He was strong [S9] here. After he got the K9 he asked several times for my suffix before getting it. After the QSO I flipped to my xmit freq. There were 3 or 4 tailgaiters calling him on my old xmit freq. He picked up a K3. When he asked for his suffix I flipped back to the old xmit. As the K3 was giving his call at least 5 or 6 idiots were calling him. They wouldn't quit. Finally the NH8 OP said :stop I'm only calling the K3. When I flipped there were still two idiots calling him. The NH8 OP then said: I'll only answer the K3. Then the K3 got his QSO. Who knows who had the poor rx who were the idiots. I think you can guess. Besides bad manners it slows the QSO count down. Bottom line is that this idea of I'll yell my call til he's forced to answer me is counterproductive. They embarrass themselves. It slows the QSO count down. It means a few stn.s will never get the QSO. The hobby loses. Maybe that's what they want. Who knows. The axium of work the obnoxious ones first get them out of the way has it's points but this is a hobby. Or it is sometimes K9IL __ 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
[Elecraft] KX3 speaker problems
Having been reading all of the post concerning speaker buzzing and vibration. I have just received my KX3 kit and spent alot of time examining and getting the specification for the speaker then proceeded with the assembly. A little history about myself: I work in the aviation industry (roughly 30 years), I do instrument repair work (electronic and mechanical) most of my work is mostly for Cessna citation jets (owners and pilots can be very picky) I have been messing with electronics for about 45 years I have completed assembly and have made the following observation: 1) Quality control by the manufacture (not sure on there inspection process, I have checked the cone hight with a straight edge like done in the assembly manual for the LCD hight check) 2) VFO shield touching rear of speaker this causes excessive case vibration, can be cured by placing a piece of rubber (like what is used as the speaker gasket) between VFO shield and rear of speaker (adhesive back stuck to VFO shield before installation and tightening of VFO encoder) 3) RX EQ set improperly cut 50Hz to -16, cut 100Hz to -4, 400Hz to 0, 800Hz to +1, 1600Hz to +4, 2400Hz to 0 and 3200Hz to 0 (this helps compensate for speaker frequency curve and cuts the bass out that will cause vibration and distortion, if would like to boost frequency for CW operation boost 400Hz and 800Hz by +4) 4) Kit packaging (piece of thin cardstock taped to front of speaker to keep the cone from becoming damaged by other parts in the bag/box during shipping) I hope this can help you as I do this for living everyday. 73, Michael - N8NOC K1-4 #3046 K3/10 #6596 KX3#1573 All kits __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Swains Is
On Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 7:44 PM, r miles greenacres...@charter.net wrote: at least 5 or 6 idiots were calling... === When I was first licensed in 1957 this and all the many related topics were discussed practically every month in columns in CQ and/or QST, and it will never change as long as there are pileups. Situations like this are treated on the website of every DXpedition, and the DX Code specifically addresses them. DX columns in CQ and QST still make exactly the same comments they made 55 years ago. However, it is fruitless. Every village has an idiot, and every pileup is the equivalent of several villages. As a side note: The NH8 DXpedition, like most recent expeditions, started out by trying to operate in the General portion of the bands, in order to maximize QSOs. They advertised on their website that this would be their policy. However, they are now operating entirely in the Extra portions at the very low end of the bands, probably in the hope that the pileup behavior will improve. Of course, to the limited extent that this improves matters, it's good only for CW and only on the non-WARC bands. And sad to say, the behavior of Extra licensees does not really seem to be much of an improvement. Still on-freq callers, still up-cops, still tuner-uppers, and still deliberate QRMers. It's natural to get frustrated, but as far as I can figure out, the best answer is just to learn how to work DX in spite of all this nonsense, because it ain't gonna go away. Tony KT0NY -- http://www.isb.edu/faculty/facultydir.aspx?ddlFaculty=352 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 JT 65-HF transmit?
`Comments interweaved; First. the microHAM microKEYER II is a high quality external sound card with lower noise floor and higher dynamic range than standard OEM sound cards in many computers and better performance than the commodity USB sound cards used by many - including some of the 'made for ham radio' USB sound products. `There was no question on your product quality. In addition, most microHAM interfaces provide USB to serial rig control interfaces, many include a K1EL WinKey based keyer, *true FSK* support rather than a jitter prone software hack and several other station control options (including isolated Icom CI-V transceive emulation which allows automatic band switching of the Icom PW-1 from most non-Icom transceivers). `That's nice. There is no reason for you to be disagreeable about other users choices in accessories. While you may find something unnecessary, others may have good reasons for using them. `See on an interface for use with a K3 when one is not needed needed being the keyword, `hence when it is not needed then it is not necessary. There is no disagreeable on my part. `Some ops buy this stuff thinking it it is necessary when it is not, and do not realise the effort Elecraft `have put into the K3 built-in isolated audio interface. `You outlined the specific area's where the Microham may be useful splendidly. `You represent Microham Joe and good for you, but please do not see that as a critique on the device `itself. `73 `Adrian ... vk4tux -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/K3-JT-65-HF-transmit-tp7562398p7562458.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:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
[Elecraft] K3 3 Plasma - Panasonic owner experience
I have the predecessor of the Panasonic you are looking at, a TC-P65VT30, which was manufactured August 2011. I can tell you that mine is surprisingly quiet. I had a Samsung 58b860y2fxza prior to this that was unbelievably obnoxious, to the point I had to turn it off to communicate on my morning 75m net and it splattered other bands too. I could actually here the noise pattern change in response to changes in the raster on the TV. I was lucky, in an RF sense, my disabled son cracked the screen on the Samsung, forcing me to re-evaluate brands. Since I put way through college fixing TV's among other things, I have pretty extensive contacts with people still in that business, and they all gave the nod to Panasonic, when it comes to Plasma, from reliability, to picture, to support from the manuf. After seeing both companies, I tend to agree. I wrote Samsung about the issue requesting they address the issue and they didn't even respond. The servicers don't like Samsung either, so steer clear of them. You will absolutely love the Panny set. As a past servicer with very picky eyes that like the CRT look, you will not have any regrets, unless you are looking for super bright LCD fluorescent display, which to me is not the (natural) look I like. I will also note that both sets were treated with the large ferrite cores K9YC did the group buy on a while back and I haven't done a before after cores on the Panasonic, as I just put them on when I installed it. I did do a before after on the Samsung and although it helped the Samsung was so bad that I couldn't totally suppress it. For those not familiar with the Model numbers, the sets we are talking about are/were the flagship models, so mileage may vary on lower end models. Kirby - AF6OP Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 Plasma Question We are now in the market for another TV, and have been looking at a very nice Panasonic 65 Plasma set, model TC-P65VT50. I've already told the Best Buy sales manager that IF we do buy it and IF it causes QRN to the HF bands, it is coming right back. He said that is no problem. But, if I can query this group to see if anyone else has one of these TV's, I may be able to avert a lot of work ahead of time. Our second choice would be an LED set, but after seeing plasma and LED side by side, playing the exact same content, I want to stay with plasma - BUT ONLY IF IT DOESNT SCREW UP THE K3!!! __ 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
[Elecraft] [OT] Interference from HVAC equipment
The recent discussion about interference from Plasma TV sets, while not directly related to Elecraft products, caught my eye as very relevant to many hams. Perhaps then a discussion of another potential interference source might be of general interest. Our house furnace and air conditioner equipment is quite old, and will need to be replaced in the not too distant future. It doesn't generate noticeable interference, but then none of the motors involved have continuously variable speeds. Newer, energy-saving equipment seems often to rely on variable speeds; this suggests to me a source of potential interference. I'd like to hear about what brands and models might or might not cause interference, and what you might have done to fix it. Thanks in advance, Erik K7TV __ 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
