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Field Day Guide to K3 and P3 by K2QY--RECAP

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John Fritze

Field Day Guide to K3 and P3 by K2QY--RECAP

I gave my presentation on the Friday prior to Field Day. I had a couple of
questions on clarifications and afterwards several hams came up to me and
thanked me because they felt it was a big help. I especially focused on
the TAP/HOLD differences and the fact that most functions are clearly
marked. I noted that ergonomically the layout of the K3 has similar
functions in the same general area on the panel.

So the result on Field Day this year was that the several operators who
used my K3 felt much more comfortable with it. I did need to answer a
couple of queries on the fly but over all most of the ops enjoyed using my
K3 and P3. One of the most timid of last years ops told me she really felt
that the K3 was pretty easy to use now that she understood the TAP/HOLD
functions. In fact she would consider an Elecraft product next time she
was in the market. Most of the ops really loved the P3 and it's ability to
easily hunt and pounce.

I showed a couple of hams how easy it was to be running on a frequency and
hunt and pounce using the 2nd receiver on the same band. That totally
amazed a couple of people.

As a bonus, our club has 2 Kenwood 930s, one of which is having issues. So
next year, we will probably be using not only my K3, but my KX3 with the
100W amp for a second station. Retiring one of the 930s (thankfully) since
they have no filtering.....

As with several FD operations we can run CW and SSB on any band at the same
time. The K3 output is very clean, not causing any RFI issues (as
expected). The 930s do not cause RFI in the K3, even though they have
issues with each other on some bands.

--
John Fritze Jr
K2QY
AARA president 2013
ACACES secretary 2013
Albany County RACES Radio Officer
ARES ENY DEC Northern District
Hudson Div. Asst. Director
Twitter: @k2qy
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Scott Dunlavey

Re: Field Day Guide to K3 and P3 by K2QY--RECAP

nice job John... what did you guys run this time around.. 3a ?? how did
you do over all you think??

On 6/28/2013 9:01 AM, John Fritze wrote:

> I gave my presentation on the Friday prior to Field Day. I had a couple of
> questions on clarifications and afterwards several hams came up to me and
> thanked me because they felt it was a big help. I especially focused on
> the TAP/HOLD differences and the fact that most functions are clearly
> marked. I noted that ergonomically the layout of the K3 has similar
> functions in the same general area on the panel.
>
> So the result on Field Day this year was that the several operators who
> used my K3 felt much more comfortable with it. I did need to answer a
> couple of queries on the fly but over all most of the ops enjoyed using my
> K3 and P3. One of the most timid of last years ops told me she really felt
> that the K3 was pretty easy to use now that she understood the TAP/HOLD
> functions. In fact she would consider an Elecraft product next time she
> was in the market. Most of the ops really loved the P3 and it's ability to
> easily hunt and pounce.
>
> I showed a couple of hams how easy it was to be running on a frequency and
> hunt and pounce using the 2nd receiver on the same band. That totally
> amazed a couple of people.
>
> As a bonus, our club has 2 Kenwood 930s, one of which is having issues. So
> next year, we will probably be using not only my K3, but my KX3 with the
> 100W amp for a second station. Retiring one of the 930s (thankfully) since
> they have no filtering.....
>
> As with several FD operations we can run CW and SSB on any band at the same
> time. The K3 output is very clean, not causing any RFI issues (as
> expected). The 930s do not cause RFI in the K3, even though they have
> issues with each other on some bands.
>
>
>

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ve3dvy

Re: Field Day Guide to K3 and P3 by K2QY--RECAP

In reply to this post by John Fritze

I also created a 5 page printed guide and leaving at the station
thinking it would be read. That was dumb, as I still had to answer many
questions that were all answered in the guide. Finally I just answered
those by just putting the guide in front of them and saying Page 3 or
Page 4. or whatever page it was on.

My mistake and it seems you did it correct is I will need to do a
presentation next year.

David Moes

[hidden email]
VE3DVY

On 6/28/2013 09:01, John Fritze wrote:

Don Wilhelm-4

Re: Field Day Guide to K3 and P3 by K2QY--RECAP

David,

5 pages is too long. If it cannot be covered in half a page, it will
not be read, and even that half page may not be read.
I made a 1 page note on K2 operation for Field Day and even then an
experienced digital operator put the K2 in Digital mode using USB
instead of RTTY mode and had trouble because USB mode had compression
turned on. Once we switched to RTTY mode, the transmit distortion was
gone and digital contacts were possible.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 6/28/2013 10:02 PM, david Moes wrote:
> I also created a 5 page printed guide and leaving at the station
> thinking it would be read. That was dumb, as I still had to answer
> many questions that were all answered in the guide. Finally I just
> answered those by just putting the guide in front of them and saying
> Page 3 or Page 4. or whatever page it was on.
>
> My mistake and it seems you did it correct is I will need to do a
> presentation next year.
>

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Bill Frantz

Re: Field Day Guide to K3 and P3 by K2QY--RECAP

In reply to this post by John Fritze

I have read the manuals for the equipment I have, sometimes
several times. The last time I had a problem, poor RX
sensitivity on my K3 I ended up in the trouble shooting section.
It quickly lead me to the problem: I had switched a separate RX
antenna on, with nothing connected on the back of the radio.
Going back to a common TX+RX antenna quickly cured the problem.
BTW, the leakage was strong enough to copy W1AW code practice in California.

Thanks Ron and the rest of the tech writers for the manuals.
They are generally very good. Also three cheers for including an
index. None of the manuals for my other radios have an index and
become almost useless as a result.

Cheers - Bill, AE6JV

On 6/28/13 at 7:41 PM, [hidden email] (Ron D'Eau Claire) wrote:

>I write some of Elecraft's manuals, and customer support is forever noting
>that a customer called about "this" (covered on page 4) and "that" (on pages
>9 and 11) and the "other thing" (page 15).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Frantz |"After all, if the conventional wisdom was
working, the
408-356-8506 | rate of systems being compromised would be
going down,
www.pwpconsult.com | wouldn't it?" -- Marcus Ranum

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KE6BB

Re: Field Day Guide to K3 and P3 by K2QY--RECAP

Re: Thanks Ron and the rest of the tech writers for the manuals.

And another tip-of-the-hat from me to Ron and the other manual writers. I also appreciate the posts Ron makes on this list, and the KX3 Yahoo group. He always writes clearly, technically sound, and never insulting. Throughout my career, I appreciated the Tech Writers who took my mixed up engineering babble and made sense out of it. Now that I am retired, it is nice to see that I can still enjoy this often under-appreciated skill.

Respectfully,

Mark
KE6BB

________________________________
From: Bill Frantz <[hidden email]>

...Thanks Ron and the rest of the tech writers for the manuals. They are generally very good. Also three cheers for including an index. None of the manuals for my other radios have an index and become almost useless as a result.

Cheers - Bill, AE6JV

On 6/28/13 at 7:41 PM, [hidden email] (Ron D'Eau Claire) wrote:

> I write some of Elecraft's manuals, and customer support is forever noting
> that a customer called about "this" (covered on page 4) and "that" (on pages
> 9 and 11) and the "other thing" (page 15).
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KE6BB

Re: Field Day Guide to K3 and P3 by K2QY--RECAP

In reply to this post by Don Wilhelm-4

Re: "I am sorry I have had to write you such a long letter, but I did not have
time to write you a short one"

That describes me perfectly! I just cannot seem to write a short post...well, hopefully this one will be!

Mark
KE6BB

________________________________
From: Ron D'Eau Claire <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Sent: Saturday, June 29, 2013 9:44 AM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Field Day Guide to K3 and P3 by K2QY--RECAP

Blaise Pascal once began a letter with:

"I am sorry I have had to write you such a long letter, but I did not have
time to write you a short one"

He was quite right. Writing something short and concise takes much longer
than writing a lengthy tome.

73, Ron AC7AC
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tnnyswy

Re: Field Day Guide to K3 and P3 by K2QY--RECAP

Mark, sorry OM.
Your post is still too long! 8-)

" Ditto " Would've sufficed. :-D < big grin >

((((73)))) Milverton.

>________________________________
> From: Mark Petiford <[hidden email]>
>To: Ron D'Eau Claire <[hidden email]>; "[hidden email]" <[hidden email]>
>Sent: Saturday, June 29, 2013 12:27 PM
>Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Field Day Guide to K3 and P3 by K2QY--RECAP
>
>
>Re: "I am sorry I have had to write you such a long letter, but I did not have
>time to write you a short one"
>
>
>That describes me perfectly! I just cannot seem to write a short post...well, hopefully this one will be!
>
>Mark
>KE6BB
>
>
>
>________________________________
>From: Ron D'Eau Claire <[hidden email]>
>To: [hidden email]
>Sent: Saturday, June 29, 2013 9:44 AM
>Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Field Day Guide to K3 and P3 by K2QY--RECAP
>
>
>Blaise Pascal once began a letter with:
>
>"I am sorry I have had to write you such a long letter, but I did not have
>time to write you a short one"
>
>He was quite right. Writing something short and concise takes much longer
>than writing a lengthy tome.
>
>73, Ron AC7AC
>______________________________________________________________
>Elecraft mailing list
>Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
>This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
>