K3 DSP Board LP and LF Mod Rev D

[Craig Smith]

I had ordered the $89 DSP board mod some time ago.  Got an Email from Lisa
about a week ago offering another option rather than waiting to receive a
refurbished board to swap into my K3.  Offer was to send in my existing DSP
board for the mods - same price.

 

I took her up on it.  I sent my Rev B DSP board to Aptos late last Tuesday
afternoon via USPS Priority Mail (from Colorado).  Got an Email from Apos on
Friday (3 days later!) saying that the board had been received, reworked and
shipped back to me.  It arrived today (Monday) via Priority Mail - less than
6 days from when I shipped it out.  Total cost with shipping was $97.64.

 

I took advantage of the few days of downtime to install 10 other hardware
mods that had been accumulating for installation in my ancient K3.

 

Popped in the "new" board, and everything seems to work fine.  The
refurbished board is marked "ASSY Rev. D" and my previous DSP firmware level
2.46 had been replaced with 2.52.   And, yes, the new add-on small filter
board had been installed, along with (I assume) the other component value
changes on the board to extend the low frequency response.

 

The purpose of this post is two-fold.  1) To thank Elecraft for their
AMAZING turn-around time and great service (but we all knew about that).  2)
To encourage others who are waiting for a replacement DSP board to consider
the option of sending in their existing board - the wait went by amazingly
fast!

 

And, I guess I should also thank the USPS for their outstanding Priority
Mail service!

 

 

73  Craig  AC0DS

 

 

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[Brett Howard]

So what are your thoughts after all the upgrades were in place?  I've
put in all of mine as they rolled in...  Was the LPF update a big one
for you or did it not seem to make a lot of change?

~Brett (KC7OTG)

On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 1:21 PM, Craig D. Smith <[hidden email]> wrote:

> I had ordered the $89 DSP board mod some time ago.  Got an Email from Lisa
> about a week ago offering another option rather than waiting to receive a
> refurbished board to swap into my K3.  Offer was to send in my existing DSP
> board for the mods - same price.
>
>
>
> I took her up on it.  I sent my Rev B DSP board to Aptos late last Tuesday
> afternoon via USPS Priority Mail (from Colorado).  Got an Email from Apos on
> Friday (3 days later!) saying that the board had been received, reworked and
> shipped back to me.  It arrived today (Monday) via Priority Mail - less than
> 6 days from when I shipped it out.  Total cost with shipping was $97.64.
>
>
>
> I took advantage of the few days of downtime to install 10 other hardware
> mods that had been accumulating for installation in my ancient K3.
>
>
>
> Popped in the "new" board, and everything seems to work fine.  The
> refurbished board is marked "ASSY Rev. D" and my previous DSP firmware level
> 2.46 had been replaced with 2.52.   And, yes, the new add-on small filter
> board had been installed, along with (I assume) the other component value
> changes on the board to extend the low frequency response.
>
>
>
> The purpose of this post is two-fold.  1) To thank Elecraft for their
> AMAZING turn-around time and great service (but we all knew about that).  2)
> To encourage others who are waiting for a replacement DSP board to consider
> the option of sending in their existing board - the wait went by amazingly
> fast!
>
>
>
> And, I guess I should also thank the USPS for their outstanding Priority
> Mail service!
>
>
>
>
>
> 73  Craig  AC0DS
>
>
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> 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
>

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[Craig Smith]

Brett ...

<> So what are your thoughts after all the upgrades were in place?  I've
<> put in all of mine as they rolled in...  Was the LPF update a big one
<> for you or did it not seem to make a lot of change?

As you know, many of the hardware mods are just to prevent bad things from
happening under unusual circumstances rather than offering any substantial
performance improvements.  And, since I did so many at once I couldn't
pinpoint any one of them even if I did notice a difference.   I've only had
it installed a couple hours, and other than verifying that everything still
worked, haven't really had any operating time yet.  I'm a 99% CW contest
operator anyhow, so until WPX CW it won't get a stringent test.

The one exception is the IF Output Buffer Gain mod, which should be
noticeable when the P3 comes along.

I have been fairly diligent about installing each release level of the
firmware as it comes out, and some of these have definitely made noticeable
performance improvements.  I wouldn't expect (and haven't seen) any
corresponding type of improvement with the hardware mods.

73  Craig   AC0DS



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