I have never used my K3S higher than 10m. I imagine that 6m (or 2m like
the original poster is using) is a different animal than HF and the higher
gain preamp would be useful.
John KK9A
Jim Brown K9YC wrote:
> I have operated from several countries using my K3S and I am never so
> fortunate to have a noise floor low enough use preamp 2. Most of the time
> preamp 1 is also off.
I've had the opposite experience. MDS of the original K3 was woefully
poor above 15M, even with the preamp switched in. As luck would have it,
I have a very nice ARR GAsFET 6M preamp on the shelf that I'd used in
Chicago that I inserted at the RX antenna patch point; I found that it
improved the MDS all the way down to 12M. I would have missed a LOT of
QSOs without that preamp. Of course, like everyone else, sometimes my
noise level is lower than at other times, and a solar system 500 ft from
my main antenna raises it by 10 dB on 10 and 6 when the sun is hitting it.
When the K3S was introduced, I quickly replaced the Synth boards and the
Transverter board to get that improved preamp, simplifying my RX antenna
switching. I do find, though, that the GAsFET preamp has a slightly
lower NF, so I continue to use it during the 6M season.
73, Jim K9YC
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