I had a short introduction to the P3 today from Wayne and Alan (N1AL) at the Santa Barbara ham fest.
Wayne warned us that the P3 was an engineering prototype; I was expecting something less finished and with less functionality than what I found. It looked real nice sitting next to the K3. Display resolution is the first thing that I noticed, very high. The P3 and K3 were both propped up on their front bails. Having both units the exact same depth makes them match perfectly when sitting side-by-side. The prototype I saw had smooth black sides that matched the K3 finish. Wayne says there will be ventilation holes in the top of a production version. From Wayne's description, maybe 2/3s of the interior is open space for unknown future expansion ideas. There is a knob on the front to move the frequency cursor. Buttons are there on the right side of the display to change modes and select how much of the IF bandwidth is displayed. Up to 400 KHz and down to much tighter spreads. If I were operating CW on 40M for example I would probably be looking at a 30 KHz spread that covered a little bit more than the DX window. Other times I can imagine watching a much larger IF window, such as 10M phone. When I walked up the P3 was operating in split display mode with a waterfall on top and spectrum plot below. The waterfall is quite sensitive to picking up weak signals. I think it was Jim K9YC that said that his panadapter has led him to find all the troublesome wall warts in his house and quiet them. I can fully believe that this is going to be a result of many users of this technology as you will find all the donor signals readily. I asked if the P3 will have independent audio out (say of the cursor position). It is possible technically but is this really valuable? Hooks are in the K3 for the possibility to view sub receiver IF but the independent IF I/O isn't there so this isn't possible for now if I understood the answer correctly. The P3 sure has a wow factor going for it. Mike Scott - AE6WA Tarzana, CA (DM04 / near LA) NAQCC 3535 K3-100 #508 / KX1 #1311 ______________________________________________________________ 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
