Quick P3 Report

[Gary Bartlett VE1RGB]

The information below was an intended reply to W0EM's question about RTTY on
the P3 but my original post seems to have disappeared into the ether.
Here's another try:

 

Jim:

 

            This won't quite answer your question because I'm a CW contester
but for those CW ops who like to use the paddles a lot as I do (no rig
keying here), my original plan to put the P3 on the LH side of the radio
changed quickly when I found out the ease with which my right hand fingers
slid back and forth between the paddles and the QSY knob on the P3 lower
right-hand corner.  It's deliciously easy.

 

            I wish I knew more about RTTY signals so I could answer that
question but if this is of any value, I used a SPAN of 50 kHz exclusively in
the IOTA contest last weekend and picking signals 400 Hz apart on the P3 was
dead simple and accurate and I likely could have done significantly better
than that if I had tried, especially if I had narrowed up the SPAN.
However, I was having too much fun contesting to investigate that and was
never driven to finding out.  Other FTs likely have an answer to the RTTY
question.

 

            Those who don't yet have a P3, especially if you have a small
station and limited antennas and are forced to usually S&P to make points
like I have to do at this station, you are all in for a wonderful treat.  In
my humble opinion, the P3 is a candidate exception to the old rule I have
always heard about $100 invested in an antenna being equal to N x $100
invested in equipment.  It is hard to put a number on it but I believe a P3
added to a K3 can add to a small contester's bottom line by a percentage in
double digits.  [I apologize if this sounds like gloating to those who are
still without their P3s; not intended.  All good things come to those who
wait.]

 

             I found 53 Qs and 15 mults on 15M in IOTA (from home) with the
P3 using wire antennas and I know of others with beams but without a
panadapter whose points on 15M added up to grand total of zero, and these
were not novices.  The waterfall display allowed me to catch the very short
openings and/or observe signals coming up and down in rapid QSB.  Often a
signal would pop up, then disappear, but it left evidence of its presence on
the waterfall so all I had to do was turn and push one knob to QSY to that
trace and wait for it to come back, fingers now back on the paddles.  That's
hard to do by just tuning around.

 

            I'm about to take K3 #95 and an FT P3 to CY0 at the end of
October, the P3 for the sole purpose of being able to check for unexpected
openings on bands other than the run band and I fully expect to be able to
do the switching, take a look, draw conclusions, and come back to the run
frequency without the pileup much noticing that I've ever been away.  It's
that fast.  That's how I found all the stuff on 15M in IOTA.  It's about a
two-second process.

 

            No, I'm not on staff at Elecraft.  Just fortunate enough to have
caught an FT version of the P3, an opportunity for which I will always be
grateful.  Oh, and I did own a PRO III.  We are talking about two different
worlds of band scopes here in which the phrase 'order of magnitude' is not
inappropriate.  Guess which I preferred ;)

 

 

            73,

            Gary, VE1RGB

 

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[Doug Turnbull]

Oh to wake up on a Sunday morning and be so happy.   My P3 is on order and I
know that it was right to have ordered.   Users are finding the P3 does more
than originally expected and we now have another Elecraft Design Engineer,
N1AL communicating with us!   No wonder there is a growing Elecraft family
of users.

         73 Doug EI2CN


 



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