> On Jan 13, 2015, at 10:52 PM, Mike Zbrozek <k8...@verizon.net> wrote: > > As a cw opr that is planning on buying a K3 next month I would > like to know how many cw ops use/prefer 5 or 8 pole cw filters? > Does anybody use the 1000 Hz 8 pole filter for hunting cq's then > switch over to a 500 or 400 Hz filter? And how many cw ops use a sharper 200 > or 250 Hz filter? > > Tnx in Advance > > Mike Zbrozek, K8XF
I’m going to buck the trend a little bit. I only have one 8-pole filter — the 13 kHz FM filter. I see posts from a lot of guys who have a radio full of 8-pole filters. That’s nice — if you can afford it. Those filters are expensive. During the five years I spent dreaming of owning a K3, I had thought I only wanted to have the 8-pole filters. However, my wife (the best XYL ever!) ordered a very stock K3 for me for Christmas, and it came with the 2700 Hz (5-pole) filter. Swapping out this filter after the fact for the 2800 (8-pole) filter is even more expensive than ordering it in the first place. Because of the expense, I used the stock filter for about six months before contemplating anything. I bought the 13 kHz filter because it gave me FM and AM receive and transmit capability. I got the 500 Hz (5-pole) filter because someone offered it on this list at a greatly discounted price. The key thing to remember about the K3 is that the DSP IS your filter! You don’t have to buy any of those expensive crystal filters. PERIOD. The radio works great with just the stock filter. Do the expensive crystal filters make a difference? Yes. The 500 Hz filter makes a difference. I’ve got it configured to kick in at 450 Hz. There’s a distinct difference in the audio background noise switching to 450 from 500. During the 160m CW contest, this filter knocks down a lot of adjacent channel interference. I’m glad I have a narrow roofing filter available for CW, PSK and RTTY work. Bottom line — can you afford to put $700 (or $1400 if you buy the KRX3 option) worth of crystal filters in your radio? Yes? Good for you. No? Then the stock 5-pole filter works great. Splurge for the 500 Hz (5-pole) roofing filter instead of upgrading to the 2.8 kHz (8-pole) filter. PS - I just bought the KRX3 option and purchased it with the stock 2.7 kHz (5-pole) filter. I did spend the extra $30 to get a filter whose offset matches the offset of the filter in the main radio (-0.79). ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
