Having just completed being host station for W1AW/5 and also a multi-op for the ARRL June VHF Contest where we had several guest operators at W5ZN who ranged from highly skilled HF ops, some mid level ops and some Rookie ops I have been reading this thread with both interest and humor.
I have four K3's in the station here. I like 'em, best performing and best sounding radio I have ever owned but I have tweaked them for ME over time. Previous radios here (Yaesu FT1000 and Icom IC-7700) have also been great sound radios but I tweaked them for ME. After this past week it has become quite obvious, at least for me, that: 1. The factual results of performance tests by Rob Sherwood and others really can't be debated. Oh, you can debate facts just to hear yourself pontificate but it will not change the facts. So, when it comes down to "I don't like the way the RX audio sounds for me it is simply: 1. Put three hams in a room and you will get six different opinions about how the audio sounds. We're all getting old and our hearing is changing/deteriorating. 2. The Icom owners want the K3 to immediately sound just like the Icom at their shack that they have tweaked, peaked and pampered to their ear's audio pattern AND their shacks acoustic properties. 3. Ditto for Yaesu and Kenwood. 4. Most hams want to bring their own headphones that work great on their radio but sounds horrible on other radios.......so it is the radio's fault and not their headset. I actually had this debate with an op this weekend and he learned there is a difference. 5. The station owner (me, in this case) gets pretty PO'ed when a visiting ham says his radios sound like crap resulting is a response from the station owner thanking the op for visiting the station for the first and LAST time. Just wondering if maybe poor RX audio quality is why some hams like to confirm they actually made a QSO in the "Chat rooms" rather then on the air.......just speculating, different topic but couldn't resist the urge. Now back to setting my K3's back to my personal hearing preferences. -- 73 Joel W5ZN www.w5zn.org _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
