Hi everybody,
I totally agree with all who stated a superb filtering
performance of the K3 in the real combat situation on the ground. This was my
first CQWW CW contest wth this rig and in the Low Power category (usually I do
QRP). With the only dipole antenna for 80-10m and a surrogate vertical (4m pipe
with 40m wire coiled on it) on 160m I was lucky enough to make 824 QSO's from
the noisy central Brussels location. I would have not done tens
of good DX's on 40 and 20m if not the 250Hz filter in my K3. It took me some 4
min of calling V26K on 40m before he heard me (due to my dipole-only antenna, I
suppose) but I was hearing him ALL the time 599 despite a Big-Foot Romanian
station sitting only 280Hz away! By the way, even with no 250Hz filter ON,
the V26K was audible with no AGC blocking of the RX, just the YQ
station was so much louder. With the filter - no YQ at all! Just the V26K and
the pile-up.
One interesting observation. It is well discussed phenomena on
this reflector that using the narrow filter like 250Hz, you can not avoid
the hiss or humm when the noise level is almost of the same level as
of a good signal. Sometimes, on the edge of the audibility it is not
possible to hear the weak signal with the filter on. I discovered that
reducing the RF gain drastically often helps (that was a reason, I think, why
Elecraft have decided at one point, to relocate the RF/SQL knob
into more convienient position on the front pannel, hi-hi).
But the combination of reducing the RF gain AND switching ON the
Preamp often helped even more! Especially on 160m and 40m where the
noise is worst. It may sound illogical but that's my personal impressions.
Now loking forward very much to the next contest and the
spring, for more antenna experiments.
73! de Linas ON4BHP
K3 #1568
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