K3 and Perseus SDR panadapter/receiver

[Dave, G4AON]

This week I bought a Perseus receiver and have it hooked up to my K3 via
"com0com" and Ham Radio Deluxe to act as a panoramic display for the K3.

I am not using the insensitive IF out of the K3, instead I am using a
home made ferrite hybrid splitter on the KXV3 RX RF out/in of the K3,
one port goes to the Perseus, the other to the KXV3 RF input (not the
main antenna socket). The loss through the splitter is 3 dB.

In order to run the above combination, the freeware program com0com
(http://com0com.sourceforge.net/) is run to create virtual com ports 10
and 11 -instructions for doing this at the Sourceforge web site. Power
up the K3 and the Perseus (including it's perseus.exe software). The the
latest version of HRD should be run twice, one application controlling
the K3, the other the Perseus. In HRD click the "Synch" button and link
the two radios together. I use the Perseus as "Master" (sorry
politically correct people, but that's what it's called). It works great
with full dual receive and "click and go", the K3 tunes within a hairs
breadth of the Perseus which has the benefit of a 1ppm TCXO too. You can
set the K3 as master and have the Perseus follow, but I mostly use the
"click and go" where the Perseus drives the K3.

The noise reduction of the Perseus is currently better, in my opinion,
than that in the K3 when dealing with wide band white "frying" noise and
the Perseus has synchronous AM - needless to say it works very well on
those 80m AM stations and of course broadcast stations.

The Perseus is more expensive by a long way than the simple Softrock
receivers and LP-PAN, but it is darn good.

73 Dave, G4AON
K3/100 #80


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[David Cutter]

Dave

I imagine you examined several panadapters before opting for the fairly
expensive Perseus.  What were the persuading features that drew you to your
choice?

David
G3UNA


----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave G4AON" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Saturday, September 20, 2008 2:52 PM
Subject: [Elecraft] K3 and Perseus SDR panadapter/receiver

> This week I bought a Perseus receiver and have it hooked up to my K3 via
> "com0com" and Ham Radio Deluxe to act as a panoramic display for the K3.
>
> I am not using the insensitive IF out of the K3, instead I am using a home
> made ferrite hybrid splitter on the KXV3 RX RF out/in of the K3, one port
> goes to the Perseus, the other to the KXV3 RF input (not the main antenna
> socket). The loss through the splitter is 3 dB.
>
> In order to run the above combination, the freeware program com0com
> (http://com0com.sourceforge.net/) is run to create virtual com ports 10
> and 11 -instructions for doing this at the Sourceforge web site. Power up
> the K3 and the Perseus (including it's perseus.exe software). The the
> latest version of HRD should be run twice, one application controlling the
> K3, the other the Perseus. In HRD click the "Synch" button and link the
> two radios together. I use the Perseus as "Master" (sorry politically
> correct people, but that's what it's called). It works great with full
> dual receive and "click and go", the K3 tunes within a hairs breadth of
> the Perseus which has the benefit of a 1ppm TCXO too. You can set the K3
> as master and have the Perseus follow, but I mostly use the "click and go"
> where the Perseus drives the K3.
>
> The noise reduction of the Perseus is currently better, in my opinion,
> than that in the K3 when dealing with wide band white "frying" noise and
> the Perseus has synchronous AM - needless to say it works very well on
> those 80m AM stations and of course broadcast stations.
>
> The Perseus is more expensive by a long way than the simple Softrock
> receivers and LP-PAN, but it is darn good.
>
> 73 Dave, G4AON
> K3/100 #80
>
>
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[Dave, G4AON]

Hello David

A friend has a Perseus and he found it outperformed his TS480. The
RadCom review of it puts the 3rd order IMD as 102 dB at any signal
spacing (http://www.ssb.de/amateur/pdf/radcom_mar08.pdf for those who
are not RSGB members), so it is not a second rate receiver in it's own
right.

I have not tried any other SDR receiver and was put off by the others
needing a high grade sound card, the Perseus connects via USB and has an
800 KHz span rising to 1600 KHz in the next software release. It can
store 800 KHz of any band from 10 KHz to 30 MHz to hard disk for replay
later, using some 1.7 GB of disk space every 10 minutes. That bandwidth
will work very well with CW skimmer, but my initial attempt fouled up
the computer and needed an XP restore... I have a full backup of the
hard disk so I'll have another go, some of the software fudges needed
with these disconnected applications is tedious, no doubt in the not so
distant future there will be some integration taking place. I understand
Simon of Ham Radio Deluxe fame is already looking into further features
with HRD. Note com0com and HRD work fine...

73 Dave, G4AON

David Cutter wrote:

> Dave
>
> I imagine you examined several panadapters before opting for the
> fairly expensive Perseus.  What were the persuading features that drew
> you to your choice?
>
> David
> G3UNA
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave G4AON" <[hidden email]>
> To: <[hidden email]>
> Sent: Saturday, September 20, 2008 2:52 PM
> Subject: [Elecraft] K3 and Perseus SDR panadapter/receiver
>
>
>> This week I bought a Perseus receiver and have it hooked up to my K3
>> via "com0com" and Ham Radio Deluxe to act as a panoramic display for
>> the K3.
>>
>> I am not using the insensitive IF out of the K3, instead I am using a
>> home made ferrite hybrid splitter on the KXV3 RX RF out/in of the K3,
>> one port goes to the Perseus, the other to the KXV3 RF input (not the
>> main antenna socket). The loss through the splitter is 3 dB.
>>
>> In order to run the above combination, the freeware program com0com
>> (http://com0com.sourceforge.net/) is run to create virtual com ports
>> 10 and 11 -instructions for doing this at the Sourceforge web site.
>> Power up the K3 and the Perseus (including it's perseus.exe
>> software). The the latest version of HRD should be run twice, one
>> application controlling the K3, the other the Perseus. In HRD click
>> the "Synch" button and link the two radios together. I use the
>> Perseus as "Master" (sorry politically correct people, but that's
>> what it's called). It works great with full dual receive and "click
>> and go", the K3 tunes within a hairs breadth of the Perseus which has
>> the benefit of a 1ppm TCXO too. You can set the K3 as master and have
>> the Perseus follow, but I mostly use the "click and go" where the
>> Perseus drives the K3.
>>
>> The noise reduction of the Perseus is currently better, in my
>> opinion, than that in the K3 when dealing with wide band white
>> "frying" noise and the Perseus has synchronous AM - needless to say
>> it works very well on those 80m AM stations and of course broadcast
>> stations.
>>
>> The Perseus is more expensive by a long way than the simple Softrock
>> receivers and LP-PAN, but it is darn good.
>>
>> 73 Dave, G4AON
>> K3/100 #80
>>
>>
>

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