Does knowing the DXpedition has K3's change your expectations?

[John Harper AE5X]

I upgraded to the K3 from a very old, very basic rig and am unsure if other modern rigs are capable of such a narrow bandwidth that is actually useful, ie w/o ringing.

With a 50Hz bandwidth, I'm learning that spotting the last station worked by the DX is much more accurate than would be possible if I had to use say a 250Hz bandwidth. And with a K3 on the other end (the DX station) presumedly dialed to a narrow width also, he's only going to hear those who've spotted him precisely.

As I said, I'm not sure if these bandwidths are unique to the K3 but, coming from an FT840, I sure seem to be getting thru the pile-ups more easily than I use to and believe this may be the reason as it's the only thing that's changed here (although the UPS guy will be delivering a 600w amp Wednesday!).

John AE5X
http://www.ae5x.com/blog

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[n7ws]

First you assume that everyone uses spots.  Some of us do not.  (I know I'm in the minority here)

Second, if a DX station is working split, you don't know where he is listening but I doubt that he is using 50 Hz BW, especially if he's working a mode other than CW :-)

I think your "getting through" better is more a function of mental telepathy than hardware.

Wes Stewart, N7WS

--- On Wed, 11/24/10, John Harper <[hidden email]> wrote:

> I upgraded to the K3 from a very old,
> very basic rig and am unsure if other modern rigs are
> capable of such a narrow bandwidth that is actually useful,
> ie w/o ringing.
>
> With a 50Hz bandwidth, I'm learning that spotting the last
> station worked by the DX is much more accurate than would be
> possible if I had to use say a 250Hz bandwidth. And with a
> K3 on the other end (the DX station) presumedly dialed to a
> narrow width also, he's only going to hear those who've
> spotted him precisely.
>
> As I said, I'm not sure if these bandwidths are unique to
> the K3 but, coming from an FT840, I sure seem to be getting
> thru the pile-ups more easily than I use to and believe this
> may be the reason as it's the only thing that's changed here
> (although the UPS guy will be delivering a 600w amp
> Wednesday!).
>
> John AE5X
> http://www.ae5x.com/blog

     
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[John Harper AE5X]

I knew you were going to say that...

John AE5X
http://www.ae5x.com/blog



>I think your "getting through" better is more a function of mental telepathy than hardware
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[n7ws]

As I said, mental telepathy :-)

BTW, about what I said spots.  Since my last message a few minutes ago, I worked ZL8X on 15M CW.  I then heard him say QSY SSB.  I tuned to their announced operating freq, set XIT to +5 and waited. When he made his first CQ I got him on one call, with my 40-meter inverted-vee.

Then for the heck of it, I spotted him on the Internet.  If I was sitting around waiting for spots, I would now be in a pileup competing with guys with beams.

Wes Stewart, N7WS

--- On Wed, 11/24/10, John Harper <[hidden email]> wrote:

> I knew you were going to say that...
>
> John AE5X
> http://www.ae5x.com/blog
>
>
>
> >I think your "getting through" better is more a
> function of mental telepathy than hardware
>

     
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[Barry]

It means they are smarter than the average bear and also are paying less in overweight baggage fees :.)

Seriously, I'm sure it's coincidence, but I worked the ZL8 on my third call, which is pretty amazing for my puny signal.  I spent hours calling the PJs.

Barry W2UP

[Julian, G4ILO]

Wes Stewart wrote

BTW, about what I said spots.  Since my last message a few minutes ago, I worked ZL8X on 15M CW.  I then heard him say QSY SSB.  I tuned to their announced operating freq, set XIT to +5 and waited. When he made his first CQ I got him on one call, with my 40-meter inverted-vee.

Then for the heck of it, I spotted him on the Internet.  If I was sitting around waiting for spots, I would now be in a pileup competing with guys with beams.

When I read John's post, I thought he was talking about spotting i.e. *observing* what frequency the last guy to work the DX was on so he could call on exactly the same QRG. I didn't think he meant internet spotting at all. Strange how two people can read one post and get completely different ideas of what he was saying ... :)

[John Harper AE5X]

I was, Julian - tnx for the clarification!

John AE5X
http://www.ae5x.com/blog



Julian, G4ILO wrote:
When I read John's post, I thought he was talking about spotting i.e.
*observing* what frequency the last guy to work the DX was on so he could
call on exactly the same QRG. I didn't think he meant internet spotting at
all. Strange how two people can read one post and get completely different
ideas of what he was saying ... :)

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[Larry 'Rebar' Rebarchik - N6CCH]

 From the sound if this, you do not have a second VFO, me too.
Why not use A->B and then hold A->B for SPLIT and tune the B freq up the
desired offset amount with the second VFO knob?
You'll see the TX arrow pointing down to the B frequency to be sure you
are running SPLIT.

Before I learned to do this I was doing the XIT thing, but found that
the A-to-B method works a lot better and is preserved between band
changed and also with WriteLog S&P memories I can recall everything the
way it was when I saved it.

On 11/24/2010 10:22 AM, Wes Stewart wrote:
> I tuned to their announced operating freq, set XIT to +5 and waited.

--
73,
de N6CCH aka Rebar

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[Rick Prather-2]

My preferred way of doing this is a macro:

SWT13;SWT13;FT1;UPB5;RT0;XT0;

I have this assigned to my PF1 key and when a station says they are listening "up" I just hold PF1 and am ready to go.

This macro sets the split to 2 Khz but you can change the value of "UPB" to whatever your preferred initial split is.  For example if you prefer to start at 5 Khz split you can edit it to "UPB7" .

This has become my most used Macro!

Rick
K6LE
 
On 11/24/2010, at 4:17 , Larry 'Rebar' Rebarchik - N6CCH wrote:

> From the sound if this, you do not have a second VFO, me too.
> Why not use A->B and then hold A->B for SPLIT and tune the B freq up the
> desired offset amount with the second VFO knob?
> You'll see the TX arrow pointing down to the B frequency to be sure you
> are running SPLIT.
>
>

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[Val-12]

May I suggest another macro:

SWT13;UPB5;SWT11;BW0100;SWT11;SWH13;

And it's toggleable - you turn the split on and off by tapping the same key.


73 Val LZ1VB

> My preferred way of doing this is a macro:
>
> SWT13;SWT13;FT1;UPB5;RT0;XT0;
>
> I have this assigned to my PF1 key and when a station says they are
> listening "up" I just hold PF1 and am ready to go.
>
> This macro sets the split to 2 Khz but you can change the value of "UPB"
> to whatever your preferred initial split is.  For example if you prefer to
> start at 5 Khz split you can edit it to "UPB7" .
>
> This has become my most used Macro!
>
> Rick
> K6LE
>
> On 11/24/2010, at 4:17 , Larry 'Rebar' Rebarchik - N6CCH wrote:
>
>> From the sound if this, you do not have a second VFO, me too.
>> Why not use A->B and then hold A->B for SPLIT and tune the B freq up the
>> desired offset amount with the second VFO knob?
>> You'll see the TX arrow pointing down to the B frequency to be sure you
>> are running SPLIT.

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