I believe the test results but the reality to me is in the real world it
does not make any difference on HF below 10 meters.
I don't use the ATU, all resonate antenna's here. If using the
amplifier no ATU into the amplifier so that is not an issue here.
The 4 db mentioned with the pre-amp I am sure is accurate but I can not
hear the difference and I have a nice quiet location. IMHO you can't get
a quiet rx with a pre-amp as the background is going to increase when
you turn it on. It would be fine to get more back ground if the signal
was better copy. However for me I can never remember a case where
turning on the pre-amp made it possible to copy something better than
without it other than 10 meters and up and I have a quiet location out
in the country.
My opinion is based on working all DXCC countries, 5Band WAZ, lots of
contests, operating 160-1296 and higher with about 300,000 qso's in the
log and being on several Dx-peditions. I just say this to validate I
have been blessed to be able to do a good deal of operating in the real
world.
To me there is a limit to the improvement you can get in the real world
on an antenna when you have atmospheric and man made noise. Again I have
chased weak signal DX for a long time and I have never found a time the
pre-amp helps below 10 meters on recent vintage radios. It may help
others but it does not help me. For me it is just tiring to the ears to
listen to the extra background noise with the pre-amp on.
For me the key point is that you can make legitimate tests that show a
difference in a test set up with test equipment but in the real world
listening on an antenna even at a very quiet location it just isn't
going to show up.
The fact is that probably only 1% or less of hams have very quiet
locations so they just amplify man made noise when they turn on the
pre-amp. To get a benefit you need a very low noise floor and there is
a limit on HF even at the most quiet location.
I will stick to my "GUNS" and say the pre-amp does not help me any below
10 meters and only makes it more fatiguing
to listen to ( roughly 3-S units more background on my K3 meter) and I
am blessed with having a quieter location than I suspect 99% of the hams
have. So the bottom line I think for most if you want less noise is to
turn the pre-amp off. If it does make a difference for you(I does not
for me) it will be a very small percentage of the time so why not leave
it off 99.9% of the time if background noise is an issue for you.
I think most of the persons having problems with listening to the K3 are
because of what I will call "pitch" or put another way what they trouble
setting it so it is what they like to listen to. Here is a real world
example. Operating at TZ6EI this past summer on six meters W7XU was
having trouble with the K3 "noise" with the six meter pre-amp. He likes
to copy a low pitch 300 hz, no more than 400 hz on cw. The background
noise was driving him "NUTS". I had him adjust the shift to lower the
"pitch" of the noise and he was perfectly satisfied and we are talking
about hours and days of weak signal copying with headphones.
Ed W0SD
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