Having just operated from V31 with a TS850S and big EU and JA pileups, I sure wish I would have had my K3 from home. I used a TS850S for twenty years before purchasing my K3 two years ago. Using one again at a DX location gave me the opportunity to compare it to the K3. In short, there is no comparison between that old "analog" radio to the K3. The pileups on 10M and 12M SSB were so huge that all I could hear on the 850 was mush. I had to spread sigs out over a 10 kHz spectrum to hear anything. I am sure the K3 would have struggled with the pileups as well, but it would have been much more manageable. This is not to say that I wouldn't be in favor of some tweaking of the AGC options within the K3. W2LK and K2SX replaced me at the V31 location, and they both brought their K3s for the CQ WW DX test. It would be interesting to get their take on the K3s in action. Of course, we know that most of the big dxpeditions still chose K3s and I am often amazed how many of these stations can dig my modest sig out of the huge pileups.
Dave, N4QS - V31QS ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cady, Fred" <fc...@ece.montana.edu> To: "Paul VanOveren" <p...@nf8j.com>; "elecraft reflector" <elecraft@mailman.qth.net> Sent: Sunday, December 04, 2011 8:11 AM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Fw: CQ WW DX Contest CW 2011 - Unofficial claimedscores > Neat site but unfortunately none of the audio clips demonstrate the > pileups heard at dx locations like C6AAW. Once again this year the K3s > AGC failed to perform adequately for us. I found many times I just had > to turn AGC off. Signals were much cleaner and more distinguishable. > I think there are two things going on. First, I think the threshold > cannot be set high enough. The maximum is around S3 according to my > measurements. Thus, when you have a pileup of signals all in the S3, S4, > S5 region, which is common, AGC is compressing them together. When AGC > is off, these signals are now in a linear region of the transfer curve > and can be distinguished more easily. Second, and this is hard for me to > judge since it has been a while since I've used an analog audio > processing radio like the TS850, the audio doesn't sound "good". I > dunno. I think there is an inherent harshness(?) to digitally produced > audio as compared to analog audio. I'm not an audio guy, for sure. > > Sadly, I suspect top contesters are beginning to look for another radio > to replace the K3 :-( > > 73, > Fred > KE7X/C6AKX/C6AAW > > > -----Original Message----- > From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net > [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Paul VanOveren > Sent: Sunday, December 04, 2011 6:16 AM > To: elecraft reflector > Subject: [Elecraft] Fw: CQ WW DX Contest CW 2011 - Unofficial claimed > scores > > Russian website with claimed scores from last weekend. Very cool video > embedded from HI3A, with 2 K3"s prominently displayed... you can look up > your score in the search box, for your ranking in the World, North > America or just USA.... > > > Subject: CQ WW DX Contest CW 2011 - Unofficial claimed scores > > > http://pileup.ru/cqww_cw.php?year=2011 > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
