K3/100 NAQP SSB performance

[K5WA]

Since I don't have my own station (towers and such) at the moment, I put up
3 quarter wave vertical wires in a pair of pine trees in my front yard.
(Visible antennas are not allowed in my neighborhood, so these are tucked
away out of sight)  I have one for 80, 40 and 20, each with a single 1/4
wave radial running through the bushes.  They are ground mounted and I
switch between them with a remote coax switch.  I use the K3s internal tuner
to allow me to use the 40M on 15M and the 80M on 10M and 160M.  I got my K3
on Thursday and just HAD to play around a bit in a contest (which is my
primary interest in radio), so the NAQP was the one I picked for this
weekend.  I'm having a ball and finding the rig is making my terrible
antenna situation almost bearable.  I won't pretend to know the math and
electronics as to why, but SSB signals are jumping out of the K3 very
clearly.  Apparently, I even got near (within 1.5 kHz) the Slow Scan TV boys
on 14230 and was still blazing away calling CQ with a good rate.  They
finally had enough of me and moved right on top of me, but I was so
impressed that the K3 handled it all VERY well and the SSTV signal were
transparent to me.
 
I'm finding the front panel ergonomics and screen interface reactions to be
fantastic.  The needed information is popped on the screen and then goes
back to the primary information as it is supposed to.  
 
My old Heil headset with the HC-4 (or 5, I forget which one is for
contesting) plugged directly into the rig and I tailored the TX audio to my
liking.  It apparently is a big hit on the other end too as I am getting
many unsolicited "great audio" comments during the contest.   I'm watching
the PA temp just because I'm curious to see the differences between K3 and
K2 heat sink temps during contests, but the temp is moving up only 5-10 degs
C on long transmits.  Sure, this is low duty cycle SSB, but I'm hitting it
pretty hard (COMP and Audio Gain are aggressive) into marginal antennas with
45 minutes of straight CQing before I switch to hunt & pounce mode for a
while.  The VOX is so smooth and I'm doing all this without a voice keyer,
so the rig is handling all my various coughs and spurts very well.
 
I gotten a chance to play with the NB and NR features and finally learned to
set the parameter that keeps them both on as I move through the bands.  I've
adjusted the DSP and hardware settings to see how things react, but I can
always find a way to clean up noise.
 
I'm VERY impressed and can't wait to get this rig on REAL antennas in a CW
contest in the near future.
 
Bob K5WA
K3 #234
K2 #5119 (listed on eBay)
K2 #4687 (about to be listed on eBay)
K3 #xxx  (unknown, but coming in a couple of months)  ;-)  
 
 
_______________________________________________
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

[Julian, G4ILO]

Bob Evans-6 wrote

 I won't pretend to know the math and
electronics as to why, but SSB signals are jumping out of the K3 very
clearly.

Yes, it's incredible isn't it? I'm on record as saying that I hate SSB contests as the bands are just so noisy to listen to that I don't enjoy coming on and seeing what I can work. But it the K3 each station was clear as a bell, adjacent channel interference was nonexistent or easily cleaned up with a twist of the Width control, and it was actually fun to give away some points for an hour or so.

The other thing I found - again mentioned in Toby's test - is the lack of need for the preamp. With limited antennas I don't get massively strong signals and on other radios the preamp is usually on all the time to make weaker stations comfortable copy. With the K3 it just isn't necessary.