There is a catch in this, of course. Several of the top contesters are sponsored by some of the radio companies. The winner in the 2014 WRTC was sponsored by Icom as were many others. The same was true in 2018. Of course, they get the best radios, delivered at the competition. Thus the radio choice tends to be biased by the fact that the contesters may not be paying for their radios, or having to hand-carry them to the competition.
As for the winners, we have seen many times that the contesters who are most familiar with propagation in the area where the competition is held will win. This was true in Massachusetts, Germany, and will undoubtedly be true in Italy. The top guys travel to the areas to get a feel for propagation, but having experience there for a long time makes a huge difference. In WRTC, it isn’t so much the radio, but rather the experience in the zone that matter the most. Radios, logging software, antennas, etc are pretty much even. The ops themselves make the big difference. 73! Jack, W6FB > On Mar 29, 2020, at 11:06 AM, donov...@starpower.net wrote: > > Hi Carl, > > > A reminder about this thread, its not about the performance of the K3, > its about the preferences of highly competitive contesters who have > many excellent choices in the marketplace. Arguably more choices > than ever before. > > > Rather than getting into detailed discussions about specific performance > parameters, let me just suggest that you do what we do at W3LPL > during every SSB contest. Set up a K3 for SSB using the best > parameter settings you're aware of. Then set up any other top-of-the-line > radio next to it. The comparison in received SSB audio quality is stark. > When digging weak -- often distorted -- signals out of noise and extreme > adjacent channel interference, overall receiver audio is extremely important. > > > Do the same test with SSB transmitted audio quality by setting up a "blind > test." Use the best K3 parameter settings you're aware of. Then set up > any other top-of-the-line radio next to it. Ask several very competitive > SSB contesters to listen to transmissions from both radios. Don't tell > them advance which radio is which, just tell them Radio A and Radio B. > I guarantee you that no competitive contester will prefer K3 transmitted > SSB audio over any of the other top-of-the-line radios in a blind test. > > > It won't be long before we can have some run running the same tests with the > K4. > > > 73 > Frank > W3LPL > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Carl Yaffey" <cyaf...@gmail.com> > To: donov...@starpower.net, Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2020 5:35:15 PM > Subject: Re: [Elecraft] The Big Three... > > Frank, I’d like to know why a K3 is not great on SSB. Is it the receiver > audio? Transmitter EQ? > > > > > > > > On Mar 29, 2020, at 1:09 PM, donov...@starpower.net wrote: > > > Charles, > > > > The most competitive contesters -- the subject of this thread -- will always > gravitate to the highest performing radios, not to their favorite brand. > > > The K3 design is dated, all of the other top manufacturers have introduced > much higher performing SSB radios in recent years. The K3 was a > revolutionary design when it was introduced many years ago, but no more. > > > Hopefully the new K4 will change the game in Elecraft's favor once again, > especially for the most competitive SSB operators. > > > 73 > Frank > W3LPL > > > > > > > > > > > > > Carl Yaffey K8NU > > ______________________________________________________________ > 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 jackbrin...@me.com ______________________________________________________________ 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
