Kelly's posting reminded me to reprise our annual field-day tips. See below.
Like Kelly, I've always looked forward to FD. I first experienced it at age 12, in the company of grizzled veteran OT's who really took it seriously. You know the type: a guy who can install a PL-259 connector on a piece of RG8 using nothing but his teeth and a mini acetylene torch, at night, in the rain. Fortunately these tips require no such heroics. 73, Wayne N6KR * * * Here are our annual tips for getting the most out of your Elecraft rig at field day: 1. BATTERY OPERATION: To conserve battery power, use 5.0 watts or less when running from a 12-V source, and 3.0 watts or less when running from an 8-10 V source (including internal batteries). KX3-specific: The KX3 automatically switches the power amplifier to a more efficient setting based on the mode, supply voltage, and power setting. You can tell that power-saving mode is in effect by a decimal point after the 'W' in the power value (e.g., "5.0 W."). To reduce supply current in receive mode, use headphones rather than the internal speaker, and if lighting conditions permit, turn off the LCD backlight (MENU:BKLIGHT). 2. ANTENNA SPACING: If you're using more than one transmitter, try to keep the antennas as far apart as possible, and/or perpendicular to each other. This is a good practice with all FD stations, because it can prevent receiver de-sensing and intermodulation distortion. If two stations unavoidably have their antennas in each other's near fields, you can dig into a pretty deep bag of tricks, including reducing preamp gain, turning on the attenuator, or (in the case of the KX3) setting MENU:RX SHFT to 8.0 rather than NOR. All of these settings are per-band. 3. OSCILLATOR ISOLATION: The KX3, like other radios with a quadrature direct-conversion architecture, uses a VFO (local oscillator) running at or very close to the operating frequency. If you have another radio on the same band as the KX3, and the antennas are close together, the other radio may be able to hear the KX3's oscillator when they're both tuned to the same frequency. To prevent this, the KX3 includes an isolation amplifier that keeps the oscillator from radiating back through the mixer. Normally this amplifier is turned off to save about 15 mA of receive-mode current drain. To turn on the isolation amp, set MENU:RX ISO to ON. This has no effect on performance. Have fun! On Jun 8, 2015, at 6:39 PM, "wb0...@yahoo.com [KX3]" <k...@yahoogroups.com> wrote: > > Hello all, > > The week end is coming up when it is time for the KX3 to shine. This is the > kind of operation I bought the KX3 for. My plans for field day 2015 is to > operate 5 watts on battery power from a cabin overlooking Table-rock lake, > Eureka Springs Arkansas. Operating field day with 5 watts can be challenging > and takes a bit of patience. > > My plans so far to use the 5 watts into a 20 meter delta loop that > doubles as a 70 ft center-fed dipole with twin lead with a jumper removed. My > 31 ft fiberglass pole will support the antenna. > > When I was a kid, field day was always an exciting event for me that I > looked forward to and little has changed after 40 years of hamming. Would > like to encourage all KX3 owners to get out and use this engineering marvel > June 27th and 28th. Even if you set up at your picnic table at home or rent a > cabin in the woods. Would like to hear about your field day plans with the > KX3 for field day. 2 years ago I used the KX3 and a Nor-cal center fed with > speaker wire. Struggled and worked hard for 100 qsos. Last year I used a 88 > fr center fed in the trees and did much better. What are your Field Day 2015 > plans? > > > > Kelly Ellison - WB0WQS > > > > > __._,_.___ > Posted by: wb0...@yahoo.com > Reply via web post • Reply to sender > • Reply to group • Start > a New Topic • Messages in this topic (1) > > VISIT YOUR GROUP > • New Members 16 > • New Photos 22 > > • Privacy • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use > . > > > __,_._,___ ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
