Dave, W8FGU: Your questions are most appropriate, Elecraft and Amamteur Radio related.
Dave wrote: Now my questions: 1 - with my antenna setup tuned with the KAT3, knowing that we were both at 5 watts, is it possible for the antenna to be more efficient at receiving than transmitting? I guess I always thought that if an antenna "system" is matched then the energy transfer is reciprocated for rcv and xmt. -----Also might be one way propagation. 2 - with all the great receiver reports I've read on the K3 - could it be that I was simply hearing him better with my K3 than whatever he was using (unfortunately I don't know what he used as we never got that far in the QSO)? --------- that could be some of it. 3 - I did notice after the QSO that the balun was a little warm. If there are transmission losses in the balun, would there not be reciprocated losses on the receive side? ------------- I doubt that 5 watts would heat it much, was it in the sun? That could heat it also. I have been getting interested in NVIS antennas and propagaton. This make me realize that low angles are not always the best for the desired communicatin. Yesterday (mid afternoon) I did some tests with a station 25 miles from me. We worked on 3523 KHz with weak signals, both running with 50 Watts. We tried 7023 KHz, nothing heard either way. Both our our antennas on those frequencies should have max raidation at 90°. >From the ARRL antenna book and other sources I made a chart of radiation angle >and distance covered. angle miles 80 50 72 100 63 150 56 200 49 250 42 350 29 500 Of course this also depends on the height of the refracting layer. You never said how far the other station was. I just made (noon here) a QSO from near Atlanta GA to a station near Miami FL. 600 miles. On 30 M, we gave each other 339 reports. It took several retrys for me to get his call. Such are the progagation conditions. 73, Ty, GA, W1TF, K3 #696 _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com