Re: [Elecraft] K3: Simple NR/NB feature suggestion
Tim, I like this idea for the same reasons you articulated so well. Regards, Al W6LX __ 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] Bounces, no email, cannot change options re: emai
That makes three of us who are experiencing the exact same thing... and all three of us are on sbcglobal.net. I'm on the phone with them right now... they are going to ask yahoo (mail host for ATT) to check to see if anything changed on Friday night/Saturday morning when this problem started. I encourage anyone else experiencing this to log a call to support. It would not hurt for them to hear from more than one user. It would really help if someone at qth.net forwarded me a bounced-back message at al_lor...@agilent.com ... the header would have valuable information. Al W6LX -Original Message- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Jack Regan Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 4:53 PM To: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: [Elecraft] Bounces, no email, cannot change options re: emai I was finally able to change options on the server. I have yet to receive any email from the reflector. Jack __ 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] Tuner efficiency question
... Contrary to popular belief, balun loss is not the largest contributing factor, and if properly designed, makes little difference whether it is placed on the input or the output. Charles Green W1CG has done a lot of work on balun loss and reports that the loss is actually quite low (even when their design impedance is severly mismatched). My bottom line conclusion here is that we pay a price in efficiency for the convenience of compactness and a large matching range. Yes, we most certainly do. Too many of us care only about the automatic aspect of these compact tuners, and we give up really efficient tuner operation. Tuners have to be really large to be really good. The components have to be large and the enclosures have to be large. But because many people don't like large boxes on their operating tables, and because they would rather not twiddle knobs, they go to these small, sometimes lossy autotuners. As long as they understand what they are giving up by doing this, it's cool. However, balun loss isn't the only important factor and may not even be the most important factor. The balun's primary purpose is to convert to a balanced two-wire system, and in order to preserve the antenna pattern and keep the feedline from radiating, it has to provide equal currents in each leg of the feedline. In order to be effective at this, the balun's impedance has to be large compared to the antenna's input impedance. When baluns in tuners have to look into very high impedances, they stop acting as baluns. You may be happy that a particular balun doesn't have a lot of loss, but you would be very unhappy to learn that that same balun isn't doing it's job as a balun anymore. Under these conditions, who knows what the antenna pattern is. Using a balanced tuner gets you part of the way to a highly efficient antenna system; the other half of the journey is to use a balun-less design that attains true balance no matter what the antenna/feedline conditions are. I have found this possible only by homebrewing such a tuner. I don't know if you've ever seen the Annecke tuner on L. B. Cebik's web site: http://www.cebik.com/link/link.html . It was the best hope we've had to seeing a link-coupled tuner like the old Johnson Matchbox, and many folks were expecting it to go back into production, but the person who bought the rights to the design has decided not to pursue the manufacture of the tuner at this time. Too bad. We'll just have to keep building them ourselves. Al W6LX ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
RE: [Elecraft] SMD-based kits
Hi, Everybody, I have been saying essentially what Wayne has said here for quite some time: that as we head into the age of surface mount that has the potential to kill kit-building and also kill the tradition of hams working on their own gear. I have discussed this at length with my Dad and we are for example both keeping our Ten Tec Omni VI's forever, simply because it is one of the last of the leaded component-built rigs and has a greater chance of being maintained by us for a very long time. (The K2, obviously, falls into the same category.) None of us is getting any younger and as our eyes age and our hands get ever shakier, we will less and less be able to work on our own surface mount rigs. It is rather sad. You hear of unbuilt Heathkit kits all the time; they appear at online auctions and such and command incredibly high prices for the nostalgic value. I can foresee the day when unbuilt Elecrafts will command similarly gigantic prices, but for a different reason: that they likely will be the only kits left on planet Earth. Everything else will have died out as it went SMD. Already, we see certain electronic components disappearing. How long before it's impossible to find, say, a resistor with leads? Capacitors? Inductors? DIP package integrated circuits? A 2N? We should all buy a spare K2 and put it in our attics. It may enable us to hasten our retirements a few years! Seriously, I don't know what the answer is. There is a middle ground that has already been demonstrated with for example the KDSP2, where the really tough SMD stuff that would be impossible for most of us to construct is pre-assembled. That should hold us for a while, right? Regards, Al W6LX ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
RE: [Elecraft] K2 CW speed
100 wpm, elements are only 12 ms long - barely 2 ms at full output. At that speed, I'd begin to wonder about the group delay response of the remote receiver's filters I once asked about this on the Ten Tec reflector during a discussion of high speed CW, but some of the high-speed guys there assured me that they routinely copied 100 wpm without apparently being bothered by filter effects. I had a hard time believing this. They must use pretty wide filters to avoid the ringing or group delay effects that you mention, Bill. But they really didn't tell me for sure. Here's my question - what person can copy 100 wpm? Only a handful of people in the world can copy 60 wpm! You and I think alike... this was my exact next question to the guys. But again, they just sort of shrugged me off and never indicated that they thought they were pushing any limit of human ability. In fact, one guy told me that there is an entire group of folks who gets together on 40 meters at 100+ wpm! Around 7032 if I remember correctly. I've never heard them. At this speed Ted McElroy's world record, set back in the 1930s, should be threatened, but I don't know what is up with that. I believe-- though I am not sure-- that actually writing down (or typing) what you copy is really difficult at that speed. In other words, it is actually easier to simply copy in the head. McElroy's greatest achievement was evidently being able to produce a hard copy of what he heard. Regards, Al W6LX ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
[Elecraft] Nixie Clocks
I was wanting a Nixie tube clock (either kit or assembled). Hello, Dan. Check out: http://www.neonnixie.com/ , the site of a friend of a friend. You have good taste. Nixies look totally cool. Much better that 7-segment displays. Just look at a Nixie 9. It's got so much beauty and grace. It's a cool 9. Al W6LX ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
RE: [Elecraft] CW
This is all great advice from everybody. Bill, I hope you do get on the air and get some 'on-the-job' training. We'll definitely slow down for ya. This brings up a very legitimate point. It used to be that the novice bands were the training ground for new hams, or even for seasoned hams wanting to practice their code speed and CW skills. As a novice, I used to love to talk to non-novices that would come into the novice band to talk to us newbies, because generally they pushed me to faster speeds than I was used to. It was good practice. Since I've upgraded, I've still tried occasionally to keep up this custom of going into the novice bands and calling a slow CQ in case there are any folks wanting to have a QSO. In fact, just in the last month, I've been doing this a lot more. However... in the last month I think I've spent a total of two solid hours calling CQ (!) without a single response. How sad, but there seems to be nobody left in the novice bands, let alone any that would answer my CQ. I haven't heard a single signal there in years. Have you? Well, maybe one of these days, someone will answer... Al W6LX -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of James T. Jim Rogers, W4ATK Sent: Monday, December 20, 2004 5:22 PM To: Elecraft Reflector Subject: RE:[Elecraft] CW Hey Bill, Don't worry about being a little slow on CW. Just jump on in there. If the other guy won't slow down for you to your comfortable speed, it is his loss. I hope I will see you on 7040 or 14060 real soon. If you hear W4ATK be sure and give me a call. 73 Jim, W4ATK K2 #4028 ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
[Elecraft] Any OO's on reflector?
I was up in the novice band again tonight, calling CQ (with no answers). I heard some weird signals. The weirdest is on exactly 3700.00 LSB; exactly every 40 seconds, a recording of Yosemite Sam saying, Varmint, I'm-a gonna blow you to smithereens!! Can anyone else hear that? But aside from this unidentified signal, there are many other mystery signals. For example, I planted myself on 3720 and halfway through my CQ I heard a weak carrier. I paused, thinking it was somebody trying to break me, but nothing. This happened on several other frequencies between 3700 and 3723 or so. It was as if I was triggering an automated station with my signal. At one point, I was lighting up these weak carriers and 'long dash' stations as I tuned down from 3720, leaving a trail of them in my wake. Does anyone know what these are? No wonder nobody goes into the Novice band anymore! What an unpleasant experience. Al W6LX ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
RE: [Elecraft] (Elecraft) K2 - VOX - Straw Poll
And Jim, actually what he meant to say was, That's one small step for *a* man,... but either he didn't say the a or it didn't come out on the audio. Perhaps VOX chopped it off. I don't know. :^) But with that little word a in there, the sentence finally makes sense. Just to comment on the VOX question... as discussed in great detail on the Ten Tec reflector this week, the vast majority of folks preferred QSK operation on CW. It is interesting that the vast majority also dislikes using VOX, which is kind of the QSK of SSB when you think about it. That's interesting. Al W6LX -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2004 5:15 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] (Elecraft) K2 - VOX - Straw Poll In a message dated 8/12/04 6:54:50 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: When the subject of vox comes up, I always think of that great moment in history when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface and said, Except that's not exactly what he said. It's what he was supposed to say, but he actually said: That's one small step for man, one ... iant leap for mankind. 73 de Jim, N2EY who still remembers that night. ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
RE: [Elecraft] Re: KX1 and airport security
He got REALLY excited and began pointing at it, yelling, WHUT ISS DAT?, over and over as he backed away from the car. My 14 year-old son got out of the car to see what he was upset over and when he tried to pick it up and show the guard it was only a radio, the guard got even MORE excited, screaming NO!!! LEAVE IT 'LONE!!!. About 5 minutes later, after finally getting him calmed down, he finally, and hurriedly, motioned us on through the checkpoint. Thank goodness he didn't have a firearm with him. He probably would have drawn it from it's holster. Rick, this is such an amazing and incredible story. I think maybe the guard has seen too many James Bond films, no? But this thread also points out that many, many people have stories like this. I won't even go into the time that I took my little QRP rig through LAX (years before 9/11), was held up going through X-ray, had my briefcase and shaving kit dumped out on the table, with a guard hunched over staring at my rig for several minutes and then finally shrugging pathetically and saying, Voices come out of this thing? Nor will I recount, as I sat waiting at the gate afterward still burning over the incident that spilled my toothpaste-pills-allligator clips all over the floor, the over three minutes that it took someone to show up when a security door leading to the tarmac was opened and left opened as the ear-splitting alarm rang, without ceasing, for all of those three or four minutes. Plenty of time for someone to run out to the aircraft and plant a bomb and run back. They sure took their time responding to that. But a QRP rig?? Now THAT'S dangerous enough to detain someone over!! Al W6LX ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraftHelp: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
RE: [Elecraft] K2 power with and without PA
I would like to know, if you install the 100W PA, and you run the K2 at 5W or 15W on batteries in the field, is the K2 will drain more power because the PA is installed, or it will drain normal power like about 180 mA - 240 mA on receive ? Jean-François Ménard / VA2VYZ Jean-Francois, I believe that with the PA installed, even if you shut off the PA's power supply and run QRP power, the current drain will be greater than the K2 QRP version. I don't have my schematic in front of me, but I believe there are circuits in the PA that draw current from the RF board of the K2. You can expect something like 150 mA quiescent current drain from the PA. Therefore, if you are going to operate in the field from batteries, then you should physically remove the PA and replace with the QRP top cover to achieve the (approx) 200 mA receive current. Regards, Al W6LX ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft You must subscribe to post. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, Unsub etc): http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft page: http://www.elecraft.com
