K2 insensitive on 20...or is it?
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I am seeing some odd behavior on my K2, and it may be just in my imagination. On 40, with its normal higher background level of QRN, I can easily get strong signals and strong noise levels. With the AF and RF gains turned up, I have comfortable armchair reception. If the S/N ratio is bad that night I may not get an intelligible signal, but it is clear that things are working nicely. But when I attempted to look for QSOs in the recent Run for the Bacon, I not only found very few CQers on 20, it seemed that both their signals and the background noise (which of course would be lower on 20 anyway) were very weak. Even with the preamp on and the AF and RF gains at max, I don't feel that I have armchair copy even on the *noise*. The S/N seems pretty normal, but I feel as though I can't turn up the volume to make the combined S+N very loud on the speaker. (Again, this problem does not exist on 40.) The noise level on 20 does change as expected when I vary the filter width. If I switch to USB/RTTY mode with wide filters and tune in 14.070, the strong PSK signals there just about blow me out of my chair, so it isn't always insensitive... I am probably just imagining this. Has CW on 20 been lousy lately? Any objective way to test it? I am a pretty inexperienced op who has really only gotten serious about CW in the past 4 months, so I don't have much experience to draw on. Cathy N5WVR _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] 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: K2 insensitive on 20...or is it?
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Cathy,
There was a geomagnetic storm recently which may be affecting things. Wait a few days and see, or if you have the equipment, you can measure your receivers sensitivity if need be. Vin KR2F K1-4 s/n:1977 KX1 s/n:1476 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cathy James" <[hidden email]> To: <[hidden email]> Sent: Monday, August 21, 2006 10:15 PM Subject: [Elecraft] K2 insensitive on 20...or is it? > > I am seeing some odd behavior on my K2, and it may be just in my > imagination. > > On 40, with its normal higher background level of QRN, I can easily get > strong signals and strong noise levels. With the AF and RF gains turned > up, I have comfortable armchair reception. If the S/N ratio is bad that > night I may not get an intelligible signal, but it is clear that things > are working nicely. > > But when I attempted to look for QSOs in the recent Run for the Bacon, I > not only found very few CQers on 20, it seemed that both their signals and > the background noise (which of course would be lower on 20 anyway) were > very weak. Even with the preamp on and the AF and RF gains at max, I > don't feel that I have armchair copy even on the *noise*. The S/N seems > pretty normal, but I feel as though I can't turn up the volume to make the > combined S+N very loud on the speaker. (Again, this problem does not > exist on 40.) The noise level on 20 does change as expected when I vary > the filter width. If I switch to USB/RTTY mode with wide filters and tune > in 14.070, the strong PSK signals there just about blow me out of my > chair, so it isn't always insensitive... > > I am probably just imagining this. Has CW on 20 been lousy lately? Any > objective way to test it? I am a pretty inexperienced op who has really > only gotten serious about CW in the past 4 months, so I don't have much > experience to draw on. > > Cathy > N5WVR > > _______________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Post to: [hidden email] > 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: [hidden email] 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 |
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Vin, Kathy, et.al.
I doubt the Geomagnetic storm had much effect on 20m. Gemomagnetic Storms have their greatest effect on 40m, manifesting as high levels of QRN. Strong storms can affect higher frequencies, but the effect is the same, increased QRN. Kathy describes low noise and weak signals on 20m. Most likely this is due to the fact that we are at the low point of the current solar cycle. Solar flux has been running 75 +/- or so lately, barely enough to charge the ionosphere for good daytime ops. The area of the ionosphere of interest here is the "F" layer, it is charged by solar radiation, and reflects HF signal back to earth. The F layer has its greatest effect on signals 10MHz and above, up to 10m or so. During evening hours, when the sun does not charge the ionosphere, the F layer rises in altitude and becomes quite thin. Most of the radio signal propagates out into space, leaving very little to reflect back to earth to be detected by a receiving antenna. Noticing that RFB was in the evening hours, I expect Kathy's observations were a result of the ionosphere as I describe. As for the loud PSK signals: Maybe those stations were close by? Or, maybe running high power? (more signal to reflect back) I've observed many people using 20, 30 even 100W or more for PSK ops as little as a year ago. (I haven't worked any PSK in the last year. When I did, it was never with more than 2 or 3 Watts) A good primer on HF propagation can be found here: http://sec.noaa.gov/info/Radio.pdf from NOAA/SEC. More educational material WRT Space weather, radio propagation...etc. can be found here: http://sec.noaa.gov/Education/index.html A quick, and relatively inexpensive, way to determine the K2's sensitivity is with the Elecraft XG2 signal generator, It has a 1uV signal level on 80/40/20 suitable for MDS measurements. 73, Rod Ai7NN On 8/21/06, Vin Cortina <[hidden email]> wrote: > Cathy, > > There was a geomagnetic storm recently which may be affecting things. Wait ... > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Cathy James" <[hidden email]> > To: <[hidden email]> > Sent: Monday, August 21, 2006 10:15 PM > Subject: [Elecraft] K2 insensitive on 20...or is it? > > ... > > But when I attempted to look for QSOs in the recent Run for the Bacon, I > > not only found very few CQers on 20, it seemed that both their signals and > > the background noise (which of course would be lower on 20 anyway) were > > very weak. ... _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] 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 |
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In reply to this post by Vin Cortina
Folks,
Found a few more good HF Propagation primers: http://www.ae4rv.com/tn/propflash.htm http://ecjones.org/propag.html http://www.ips.gov.au/Category/Educational/Other%20Topics/Radio%20Communication/Intro%20to%20HF%20Radio.pdf Also check out the propagation beacons from NCDXF, http://www.ncdxf.org/ Listening to these can give you a pretty good idea of what you can hear from where, Enjoy. 73, Rod Ai7NN On 8/21/06, Rod Ai7NN <[hidden email]> wrote: ... > > A good primer on HF propagation can be found... ... _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] 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 |
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In reply to this post by Rod Ai7NN
Hi all,
I have a K2 and use the CW spot function a lot to zero beat the signals I want to work. Is there a way to zero beat signals with the KX1? I am thinking that it can be done because of the CW announce function but would like to know how KX1 owners zero beat without transmitting. Steve, W2MY -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.11.3/423 - Release Date: 8/18/2006 _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] 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 |
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In reply to this post by Rod Ai7NN
Folks,
Found another "must read" tutorial on propagation. It is a paper presented by Paul Harden, NA5N at FDIM 2005 (QRP ARCI Event). Paul is the "Propagation Guru in Residence" on the QRP-L list. You can find Paul's presentation here: http://www.qrparci.org/mambo/pdf/FDIM81.pdf IMHO if you read only one paper about propagation, this should be it. Enjoy. 73, Rod Ai7NN On 8/21/06, Rod Ai7NN <[hidden email]> wrote: > Folks, > > Found a few more good HF Propagation primers: > ... _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] 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 |
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In reply to this post by Steven Pituch
Steve,
Well, if the KX1 had all the features of the K2, it would likely be the size of the K2 as well. There is no CW Spot button on the KX1, so you will have to guess. You are not likely to be so far off that you miss QSOs because of it. I might point out that the N0SS Tuning SMD Indicator is usable in the KX1 see www.n0ss.net . 73, Don W3FPR > -----Original Message----- > > Hi all, > I have a K2 and use the CW spot function a lot to zero beat the signals I > want to work. Is there a way to zero beat signals with the KX1? I am > thinking that it can be done because of the CW announce function but would > like to know how KX1 owners zero beat without transmitting. > > Steve, W2MY > _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] 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 |
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Since the one single channel DDS is used for transmit and receive, and it
is bumped in frequency a bit for the required offset between the two modes, it is hard to do a spot function since that small low power DDS chip only does one frequency at a time. -- Alan wb6zqz > > -----Original Message----- > > > > Hi all, > > I have a K2 and use the CW spot function a lot to zero beat the signals I > > want to work. Is there a way to zero beat signals with the KX1? I am > > thinking that it can be done because of the CW announce function but would > > like to know how KX1 owners zero beat without transmitting. > > > > Steve, W2MY _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] 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 |
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Hi Alan and Don and all,
Yes, it is not really a problem not having a CW spot button on the KX1. I am supposing that the narrow position of the filter is such that you probably can get within about 50 Hertz or so of the target. I realize now that the rig can't send an audio tone simutaneously with being in receive mode. I am not sure how the audio feedback works but I figured someone may have figured out how to activate a command and get audio feedback on the same frequency as the sidetone and use that to estimate proper pitch. It was just a thought. What I really need to do is borrow a KX1 and use it for awhile to get a feel for the rig. I think I can swing that locally. Thanks all for the input. Steve, W2MY -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.11.3/423 - Release Date: 8/18/2006 _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] 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 |
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