Hello, since I worked on 80 and 160 m the last couple of weeks I noticed that the P3 panadapter starts clicking relays whenever a very strong local signal (-10 dBm to 0 dBm) or a number of strong signals within the bandpass are present. I could not find a relation yet when it happens because it takes place in irregular intervals. I don´t notice this behavior on the upper bands where signal levels and even the sum signals are not as strong as on the lowbands. I also don´t notice it if I switch to a nonresonant antenna and dropping the signal level or terminate the receiver to actually mute it. So it has to do with the signal level which makes me think it is an automatic adaption to keep the A/D converter in the dynamic range. It also seems to have a time constant as it doesn´t switch around quickly but keeps a certain state until it switches again. The fact that the noise floor on the screen jumps up by 50 dB or and then drops down again hints to an automatic adaption mode. Attenuator setting on the radio doesn´t have any effect.
As I didn´t find any information about this issue in the manual I wonder whether somebody with a P3 panadapter could confirm (or not) whether he/she experiences the same thing. It was quite present this morning on 160 m (CQWW CW 160 m) as the band was filled with 9+++ signals between 1810 and 1900 kHz. I hear the sharp noise of the relays clicking thru the headphones and it gives an uncomfortable feeling to hear the relays cycling all the time. Maybe a future update of the firmware could make the switching process a bit smoother The firmware in use is the latest - ver. 1.60 73/Roger - DL5RBW ______________________________________________________________ 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