Elecraft

K3-PR10

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Dave Hachadorian

Re: K3-PR10

I have 6 elements on 10, and the K3 s-meter rests at S-0. When I
turn the K3's preamp off, I can barely hear a change in antenna
noise.

Do you have a good choke at the Hex Beam feed point? If not,
maybe noise on the outside of your coax is going onto the
antenna.

Dave Hachadorian, K6LL
Yuma, Arizona

-----Original Message-----
From: Dale Boresz
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2012 3:00 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3-PR10

Fred,

You must have an enviably quiet QTH (or a very poor antenna) if
you find
that the K3 can benefit from a preamp on 10m. I work a lot of
weak
signal CW on 10m with a simple Hex Beam up about 45 feet. Even
with the
Hex Beam's low gain, I can see the noise floor drop by about 9
dBm when
I disconnect the antenna from the K3 with the antenna pointed to
the
quietest part of the sky in the early morning hours when the band
is
clearly not open. These measurements were taken using both the P3
and
the K3's built-in AFV amd dBV measurement functionality.

Based upon the above measurements, the band noise is already one
and a
half S-Units above the receiver's noise floor, so it seems to me
that in
terms of improving the signal to noise ratio, a preamp would be
of
little value.

What am I missing here? (perhaps a quieter location ;-) )

73, Dale
WA8SRA

On 10/26/2012 4:51 AM, Fred Smith wrote:

> Tim
>
> I can address this a little comparing my FTDX-5000MP and my
> K3's the k3's
> receivers are not up to the level of the Yaesu 5000 on the high
> bands. But
> quite the other way around on the low bands in IMHO but 6/10m
> really needs a
> good preamp for sure.
>
> 73,
> Fred/N0AZZ

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Jan Erik Holm-2

Re: K3-PR10

Same here, I have a 6/6 Yagi stack on 10 and get more or less
the same reaction.

A built in preamp for 6 and 10m would have been super. As
soon as I get some time I will make one.

/SM2EKM
--------------------------
On 2012-10-26 18:02, Dave Hachadorian wrote:

> I have 6 elements on 10, and the K3 s-meter rests at S-0. When I
> turn the K3's preamp off, I can barely hear a change in antenna
> noise.
>
> Do you have a good choke at the Hex Beam feed point? If not,
> maybe noise on the outside of your coax is going onto the
> antenna.
>
>
> Dave Hachadorian, K6LL
> Yuma, Arizona
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dale Boresz
> Sent: Friday, October 26, 2012 3:00 AM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3-PR10
>
> Fred,
>
> You must have an enviably quiet QTH (or a very poor antenna) if
> you find
> that the K3 can benefit from a preamp on 10m. I work a lot of
> weak
> signal CW on 10m with a simple Hex Beam up about 45 feet. Even
> with the
> Hex Beam's low gain, I can see the noise floor drop by about 9
> dBm when
> I disconnect the antenna from the K3 with the antenna pointed to
> the
> quietest part of the sky in the early morning hours when the band
> is
> clearly not open. These measurements were taken using both the P3
> and
> the K3's built-in AFV amd dBV measurement functionality.
>
> Based upon the above measurements, the band noise is already one
> and a
> half S-Units above the receiver's noise floor, so it seems to me
> that in
> terms of improving the signal to noise ratio, a preamp would be
> of
> little value.
>
> What am I missing here? (perhaps a quieter location ;-) )
>
> 73, Dale
> WA8SRA
>
>
>
> On 10/26/2012 4:51 AM, Fred Smith wrote:
>> Tim
>>
>> I can address this a little comparing my FTDX-5000MP and my
>> K3's the k3's
>> receivers are not up to the level of the Yaesu 5000 on the high
>> bands. But
>> quite the other way around on the low bands in IMHO but 6/10m
>> really needs a
>> good preamp for sure.
>>
>> 73,
>> Fred/N0AZZ
>
> ______________________________________________________________
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N0AZZ

Re: K3-PR10

Thanks to all of you who have came forward to my statement supporting the
need for the preamp for 10m. My only point was my FTDX-5000's receiver and
preamps were better than my K3's and did better on weak signal work on 10m.

That said I was proud to have the 2 best radios on the market how can anyone
go wrong with that. Both are nice radios and each has features and are
superior in ways to the other. I wish I could combine both together a lot of
the time but.........I have pretty much settled on my K3's not because they
were the top performing in every way but they fit my operating better at
this time and I really like the small package (most of the time).

I did not own a single Elecraft item in March of this year, till I bought a
partial built K2/100 & KAT100 kit that was not working at that stage (page
41) and had been sitting for 3 years. It had quite a few options and the
ones it didn't have I added till it was fully loaded. Ended up sending it to
Don and he found the problem. That is where it all started at now have 11
Elecraft items and not finished.

73,
Fred/N0AZZ

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Jan Erik Holm
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2012 11:41 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3-PR10

Same here, I have a 6/6 Yagi stack on 10 and get more or less
the same reaction.

A built in preamp for 6 and 10m would have been super. As
soon as I get some time I will make one.

/SM2EKM
--------------------------
On 2012-10-26 18:02, Dave Hachadorian wrote:

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Nate Bargmann

Re: K3-PR10

* On 2012 27 Oct 04:34 -0500, Fred Smith wrote:

> I did not own a single Elecraft item in March of this year, till I bought a
> partial built K2/100 & KAT100 kit that was not working at that stage (page
> 41) and had been sitting for 3 years. It had quite a few options and the
> ones it didn't have I added till it was fully loaded. Ended up sending it to
> Don and he found the problem. That is where it all started at now have 11
> Elecraft items and not finished.

Now *that's* a testimonial!

I appreciate your honest assessment between the various radios, Fred.

It's nice to know that should I ever have the need, that an additional
preamp for 10m will be available. So far, the local noise floor is
high enough that even the 6m preamp isn't useful to me.

73, de Nate, N0NB >>

--

"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all
possible worlds. The pessimist fears this is true."

Ham radio, Linux, bikes, and more: http://www.n0nb.us
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Gregg Marco W6IZT

Re: K3-PR10

Has anyone tried to use the PR6 on 10m to see if it offers any improvement
in S/N ratio? I am away from my shack, so I am unable to test it.

73
Gregg

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Nate Bargmann
Sent: Saturday, October 27, 2012 8:44 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3-PR10

* On 2012 27 Oct 04:34 -0500, Fred Smith wrote:

> I did not own a single Elecraft item in March of this year, till I
> bought a partial built K2/100 & KAT100 kit that was not working at
> that stage (page
> 41) and had been sitting for 3 years. It had quite a few options and
> the ones it didn't have I added till it was fully loaded. Ended up
> sending it to Don and he found the problem. That is where it all
> started at now have 11 Elecraft items and not finished.

Now *that's* a testimonial!

I appreciate your honest assessment between the various radios, Fred.

It's nice to know that should I ever have the need, that an additional
preamp for 10m will be available. So far, the local noise floor is high
enough that even the 6m preamp isn't useful to me.

73, de Nate, N0NB >>

--

"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds.
The pessimist fears this is true."

Ham radio, Linux, bikes, and more: http://www.n0nb.us
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Don Wilhelm-4

Re: K3-PR10

Gregg,

There are filters in the PR6 that are tuned to 6 meters. I suspect that
on 10 meters it would act as an attenuator.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 10/27/2012 12:20 PM, Gregg W6IZT wrote:
> Has anyone tried to use the PR6 on 10m to see if it offers any improvement
> in S/N ratio? I am away from my shack, so I am unable to test it.
>
>

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Edward R Cole

Re: K3-PR10

In reply to this post by Nand Kishore

Sorry - catching up on reading posts that I missed while traveling last week.

I have a 6m preamp from another mfr on my K3, but would consider a
PR10/6 combined preamp, if offered. At present I only have a single
6-element 6m yagi pointed toward US West Coast (az=115) so no issue
with the 6m band.

I will be adding a 1100w 6m PA and QRO antenna relay so the 6m preamp
input will no longer connect thru the K3. I hope reinstall my
repaired 3-elem 6m yagi fixed toward the NE from tower#2 at 45-foot
so a second preamp would work well if it also would work on 10m
(Hygain TH3mk4). The K3 ANT1 connects thru a couple manual coax
switches for all other bands/amps/tuners/antennas.

Next summer I hope to install tower#3 (30-foot) for the 6m 6-elem
yagi which is for meteor scatter and eme work. I recently obtained a
used rotator for that project. I had to remove my two stacked 3-elem
6m yagis this summer as the upper antenna director came loose and
unreachable from the tower. I am redesigning and adding a 11-elem 2m
FM yagi bolted to the tower at 45-feet (no rotator). Lower 6m yagi
never tuned correctly and will be sold (cheap).

Winter temps may affect these plans (currently 19F).

73, Ed - KL7UW

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