Split Operation in contest

[Olivier F5MZN]

Hi -

We switched to K3's for our contest station FY5KE, in replacements of
our 20-year old Kenwood TS-850. We are now getting ready our equipment
for the coming contest season. So far so good, we are quite happy with
the K3 which is really a great radio. There is only one detail I would
like to have your opinion about.

 From everywhere outside US, we are used to operate split on 40 (and
sometimes on 80 as well), transmitting and also sometimes listening in
the "European segment" as well (you know, "listening 7205 and my
frequency", for example). With our Kenwood radios, we had an external
toggle switch located just near the computer keyboard. This switch was
connected to the ACC3 connector (front panel remote) of the TS-850 in
order to remotely command the TF-SET button. That way, we were able to
easely choose which of the TX or RX frequency to listen. Using such an
external switch, it was not necessary to hold the finger on the TF-SET
button and this was very confortable.

The REV button of the K3 is relatively similar to the TS-850's TF-SET
one, except that it is not possible to transmit when this switch is
pressed. It means that the op must think to release the REV button
before any transmission (and to press it right after the end of the
transmission if he need to listen again his TX frequency). On the other
hand, it is necessary to hold the finger on that button which is not
confortable, especially when operating SOAB.

I wonder if someone around got a way to deal with that problem. Of
course, a the possible solution would be to get the sub-receiver...
which we didn't included in our order!

An "easy" way would be to have a new entry in the menu in order to
modify the behaviour of the REV button in that manner: a single tap on
the REV button will focus the headphones to the TX frequency. Another
single tap on the REV button will focus back the headphone to the split
frequency (normal split operation). I wonder if that would be possible
to implement such a behaviour in the next firmware.

Thanks in anticipation for your comments,

Best 73,
--
Olivier / F5MZN, op at FY5KE, TM2Y, TM6I
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[Bob Serwy]

What about using a macro that would issue an A/B and a split off.  Use
another macro that would issue an A/B and a split on.




Bob Serwy - N9RS

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Olivier F5MZN
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2008 5:12 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [Elecraft] [K3] Split Operation in contest

Hi -

We switched to K3's for our contest station FY5KE, in replacements of our
20-year old Kenwood TS-850. We are now getting ready our equipment for the
coming contest season. So far so good, we are quite happy with the K3 which
is really a great radio. There is only one detail I would like to have your
opinion about.

 From everywhere outside US, we are used to operate split on 40 (and
sometimes on 80 as well), transmitting and also sometimes listening in the
"European segment" as well (you know, "listening 7205 and my frequency", for
example). With our Kenwood radios, we had an external toggle switch located
just near the computer keyboard. This switch was connected to the ACC3
connector (front panel remote) of the TS-850 in order to remotely command
the TF-SET button. That way, we were able to easely choose which of the TX
or RX frequency to listen. Using such an external switch, it was not
necessary to hold the finger on the TF-SET button and this was very
confortable.

The REV button of the K3 is relatively similar to the TS-850's TF-SET one,
except that it is not possible to transmit when this switch is pressed. It
means that the op must think to release the REV button before any
transmission (and to press it right after the end of the transmission if he
need to listen again his TX frequency). On the other hand, it is necessary
to hold the finger on that button which is not confortable, especially when
operating SOAB.

I wonder if someone around got a way to deal with that problem. Of course, a
the possible solution would be to get the sub-receiver...
which we didn't included in our order!

An "easy" way would be to have a new entry in the menu in order to modify
the behaviour of the REV button in that manner: a single tap on the REV
button will focus the headphones to the TX frequency. Another single tap on
the REV button will focus back the headphone to the split frequency (normal
split operation). I wonder if that would be possible to implement such a
behaviour in the next firmware.

Thanks in anticipation for your comments,

Best 73,
--
Olivier / F5MZN, op at FY5KE, TM2Y, TM6I
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_______________________________________________
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