Hi All, I was active as MM3T at the weekend with K3 #1293 and K2 #4688, Acom 1000, Doublet 160/80, 1/4 GP 40 and Cobweb 20,15 and 10m. The last 3 CQWW CW I've been using an FT1000MP MkV with inrad 4K roof filter (fully loaded) so was keen to give the K3 the try for the first time.
My K3 has 400/1k roofing filters installed. It needed the 400 engaged on all but 15 and 10m which were quiet here in GM and so the 1k came in to good use. I had intended to use Dual PB but forgot all about it. I had one problem with the K3 on top band when the rx went quiet and tx power disappeared in a kind of intermittent way just after transmitting. It took me a while to realise it wasn't the tuner/coax/LPF/Linear connections and seemed to be located in the back panel audio connections area. Putting my hand down the back of the transceiver and giving the connections a wiggle seemed to bring the radio back to life. At one stage I power cycled the K3 and got an ERR PLL message or something on the display. This only happened when I was on top band. I used fast AGC with AGC threshold 5 and AGC slope 10 for high bands and 8/8 for low bands respectively. I changed these settings a number of times during the contest and ended up with several favourites dependant on band/noise. I was raising the threshold in line with rising noise levels and adjusting the slope downward when dealing with pile ups which helped my brain separate the callers by adding sound level difference. Using the PF1 and PF2 keys for threshold and slope worked a treat. I had been using a K1EL keyer with the MkV in the past and decided to simplify things this year with the K3 by using DTR-RTS for key-ptt. This coupled with WinTest contest software worked flawlessly (even with open wire feeder in the shack). I allowed condx to determine my sending speed, if things got hectic whilst running, my speed went up and when trying to bag a weak one on a noisy band my speed went down. I did miss the winkey variable pot when working slow stations, but just had to hope they had been listening to me enough to get the call right before calling. I get more angry with inefficient exchange (mindlessly repeating things like my call) rather than slow speed callers. The worst combo when working a pile up is a slow caller who thinks data type exchanges are the norm, as 9/10 times this one station will cause someone else to steal your frequency whilst you are waiting for his exchange to finish. The EU really is a zoo during CQWW CW and I've tried using lesser radios in the past and given in. I did 24hrs with the K3 and still love it despite the top band band failure. A fully loaded MkV is a hard act to follow, but I did spend $6000 (ROB) on it and then had to install an inrad roof and do key click mods to get it to work properly. Thanks to all who worked me! Doug GM0ELP (MM3T) -- View this message in context: http://n2.nabble.com/K3-and-CQWW-tp1597892p1600599.html Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ 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