Ken I think you will find the 2nd receiver picks up it's signal via the
ATU and TX low pass filter, not having one I could only try working it
out via the schematics...
I have an external antenna splitter that could be used with a 6m pre-amp
to feed a 2nd receiver, although again the ATU/LPF may be an issue
depending on band combination. If you have the KXV3 you might want to
try it and see if it works for what you need - it's a bit cheaper than a
KRX3.
I have a couple of "needs" with my K3, (1) to improve the RX on 6m and
(2) to run dual receive. The receiver performance is worse on 6m than my
TS-480 by about 8 dBm and I sometimes struggle hearing weak signals on
that. I bought an Advanced Receiver Research pre-amp type P50VDG
(http://www.advancedreceiver.com/) and connect it between RX OUT and RX
IN on the KXV3. It has quite a lot of gain but I didn't find it needed a
10 dB fixed attenuator on the output, the K3 ATT works well enough.
Being very low noise there isn't a high level of hash from it and it can
be switched out of circuit easily by pressing the RX ANT button on the
K3. The MDS in a 400 Hz bandwidth increased from -136 dBm to -146 dBm
with the external pre-amp.
Regarding splitting the receiver signal to feed another receiver, in my
case my K2 via it's RX only antenna input (part of the K160M add-on for
the K2), an external ferrite splitter works well. It has 3 dB loss and
around 20 - 30 dB isolation between output ports. Wire the splitter
input from the KXV3 RF OUT, one output from the splitter goes to KXV3 RF
IN, the other to the K2 RX antenna socket. The K2 can be muted by
putting it to "TEST", turning the power to minimum, sidetone to zero and
t-r time of around 100 mS. Wire the KEY OUT from the K3 to the KEY IN of
the K2 and now you have a 2nd receiver. The external receiver can be
quietened by pressing the RX ANT button on the K3, in case of needing
additional sensitivity on the K3 the RX ANT button can be used to bypass
the splitter and remove the 3dB loss. Winding details of the ferrite
splitter are on my K3 page at: http://www.astromag.co.uk/k3/
My K3/K2 combination is mostly used on 80m with the K2 monitoring the CW
QRP frequency of 3560 and the K3 elsewhere on the same band.
73 Dave, G4AON
K3/100 #80, K2 #1892
--------------------------------
I may have stumbled onto an uh-oh ... for me anyway.
I was about to order a 2nd receiver for the sole purpose
of monitoring a -different- band (6M) while using the K3
on a different band/mode. Can I do this? I was under
the impression that one can do this, but recent postings
about VFO's make me think I was incorrect ....
Perhaps I'm reading something incorrectly.
73! Ken Kopp - K0PP
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