[Elecraft] k0p...@msn.com has a new email address
__ 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
[Elecraft] k0p...@msn.com has a new email address
__ 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
[Elecraft] K2 off frequency
Hello Om’s I am the happy owner of a K2 and I need some advices on the alignment procedure. My K2 is off frequency by about 300Hz. (I'm using an Orion for the test) I start from “4MHz Oscillator calibration” using an external counter. On TP3 the frequency on the internal counter is abt 12078 and 12.043 to 12044 on the external one. I try to modify the value of C22 but no chance to make the two equal. Until now I make all the measurements with the internal counter and on the PLL reference oscillator range test the range was around 18 KHz which I think is too much. Any ideas? Thank you! Adi, Yo2liw K2 Sn 4010 -- == Adrian Toplician 0721 367 850 Timisoara YO2LIW __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] KX3 vs. K3 and other rigs?
There is another way of looking at it-- how many additional contacts would potentially be available by utilizing an increase of just 3db? I don't know the answer but there is a somewhat analogous situation in astronomy having to do with the brightness of stars. They are also measured on a logarithmic scale, called magnitude, each magnitude representing twice or half the brightness level of the following or preceding magnitude. A difference of one magnitude does not appear very large to the eye, yet the ability to see one magnitude fainter can yield three times as many stars. I imagine some similar effect might pertain to radio waves. BTW, I'm not asking for more power in the KX3; would be quite content with 10 watts, same as my K3. 73, Drew AF2Z On Mon, 06 Jun 2011 08:56:48 -0700, Alan N1AL wrote: On Mon, 2011-06-06 at 08:10 -0700, juergen wrote: However from a communications effectiveness point of 20 watts is a much more realistic power level, especially for SSB QSO's. The difference between 10 and 20 watts is only 3 dB, half an S-unit. Compared to the 20-30 dB of QSB you often find on the HF bands, you would hardly even notice such a small difference. I think it is quite rare that 3 dB would be the difference between making a contact or not. Alan N1AL __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K2 off frequency
Adi, The PLL range has no relationship to the adjustment range of C22. How confident are you that the external frequency counter is accurate? That is an important consideration. An alternate (and better) method is to tune the K2 to a station that you know the broadcast frequency with precision. We here in the US can use WWV, but there is a standard frequency station in Russia that works well for those in Europe. I am not familiar with its tone transmit structure, so you will have to gain some information about that station. Take a look at the N6KR method for setting the reference oscillator detailed on my website www.w3fpr.com article on K2 Dial Calibration - substituting your standard station for WWV. That method does not depend on anything other than tuning that standard station correctly (ignoring the dial of the K2). Once you have set C22 properly, continue with the steps in the procedure and your K2 frequency readout should be correct to within 20 Hz. 73, Don W3FPR On 6/7/2011 6:17 AM, Adi Toplician wrote: Hello Om’s I am the happy owner of a K2 and I need some advices on the alignment procedure. My K2 is off frequency by about 300Hz. (I'm using an Orion for the test) I start from “4MHz Oscillator calibration” using an external counter. On TP3 the frequency on the internal counter is abt 12078 and 12.043 to 12044 on the external one. I try to modify the value of C22 but no chance to make the two equal. Until now I make all the measurements with the internal counter and on the PLL reference oscillator range test the range was around 18 KHz which I think is too much. __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Elecraft [K3] Macro Mess
Commands with the ! or @ prefix are Direct DSP control commands, not commands that are executed by the main control processor in the K3. These commands are not supported by the macro facility within the K3 at this time. They are only supported by K3 Utility. See Important Restrictions on page 5 of the K3 Programmer's Reference. 73, Lyle KK7P ... I tried to implement a simple Audio Mixer Command, !bed3,. . __ 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
[Elecraft] What is a dB worth was: Re: KX3 vs. K3 and other rigs?
It is pretty widely accepted in contesting that an improvement in *either* receive or transmit capability of 1 dB will yield a useful increase in the number of QSOs over a 48-hour contest, even if it has an indiscernible effect on 99.5 percent of your contacts. 73, Pete N4ZR The World Contest Station Database, updated daily at www.conteststations.com The Reverse Beacon Network at http://reversebeacon.net, blog at reversebeacon.blogspot.com, spots at telnet.reversebeacon.net, port 7000 On 6/7/2011 8:23 AM, drewko wrote: There is another way of looking at it-- how many additional contacts would potentially be available by utilizing an increase of just 3db? I don't know the answer but there is a somewhat analogous situation in astronomy having to do with the brightness of stars. They are also measured on a logarithmic scale, called magnitude, each magnitude representing twice or half the brightness level of the following or preceding magnitude. A difference of one magnitude does not appear very large to the eye, yet the ability to see one magnitude fainter can yield three times as many stars. I imagine some similar effect might pertain to radio waves. BTW, I'm not asking for more power in the KX3; would be quite content with 10 watts, same as my K3. 73, Drew AF2Z On Mon, 06 Jun 2011 08:56:48 -0700, Alan N1AL wrote: On Mon, 2011-06-06 at 08:10 -0700, juergen wrote: However from a communications effectiveness point of 20 watts is a much more realistic power level, especially for SSB QSO's. The difference between 10 and 20 watts is only 3 dB, half an S-unit. Compared to the 20-30 dB of QSB you often find on the HF bands, you would hardly even notice such a small difference. I think it is quite rare that 3 dB would be the difference between making a contact or not. Alan N1AL __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K2 off frequency
Adi... further to the message by Don W3FPR, the Russian standard frequency transmitter which is very strong in Europe is RWM. For their frequencies and schedule see: http://www.irkutsk.com/radio/tis.htm 73 Dave, G4AON __ 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
[Elecraft] What is a dB worth was: Re: KX3 vs. K3 and other rigs?
There's a saying among VHF / UHF'ers in reference to coax and connector losses that every .5db counts. 73! Ken - K0PP __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] KPA500 Kits
I received shipping confirmation for my kit yesterday. Have patience! Jerry AI6L -Original Message- From: Jim Brown [mailto:j...@audiosystemsgroup.com] Sent: Monday, June 06, 2011 10:41 AM To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] KPA500 Kits On 6/6/2011 8:27 AM, Rob May wrote: I don't think anyone has received a kit or even shipping confirmation. I really wish Elecraft would give a realistic ship date instead of stringing us along. Elecraft is a small company -- they are my neighbors, including some of their employees. They have always had the top priority of doing it right. From what I can see by watching this reflector, they're currently making sure that the building instructions make sense by having a few folks close to them build a kit from the instructions and re-writing as needed. I'm waiting for a kit, and I'm happy to know that it will be right when I get it. 73, Jim K9YC __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] KX3 vs. K3 and other rigs?
The 10W output of the KX3 can be increased to 100W via the amplifier for mobile and portable operation. To increase the output from 10 to say 30W will greatly restrict the battery life and I don't see any real advantage. Either the KX3 is a QRP radio or notadding another 10-20W available on battery power makes it less attractive to me. In VK we seem to be able to work the world on 400W and yet there are those in VK who want a change to 1Kwwill it allow us to work more stations?.maybe...maybe not. Perhaps we are just too lazy to make a few extra calls and think it is good to be told we are 20db over S9 instead of 5/9 plus I have worked a lot of stations running QRP and a dipole antenna and the last was from NY to VK using 5W, I went QRP also and we worked for 10 minutes or so. It was fun for me to work him also. My 2 cents worth...keep the change! 73's Gary On 7 June 2011 22:23, drewko drew...@verizon.net wrote: There is another way of looking at it-- how many additional contacts would potentially be available by utilizing an increase of just 3db? I don't know the answer but there is a somewhat analogous situation in astronomy having to do with the brightness of stars. They are also measured on a logarithmic scale, called magnitude, each magnitude representing twice or half the brightness level of the following or preceding magnitude. A difference of one magnitude does not appear very large to the eye, yet the ability to see one magnitude fainter can yield three times as many stars. I imagine some similar effect might pertain to radio waves. BTW, I'm not asking for more power in the KX3; would be quite content with 10 watts, same as my K3. 73, Drew AF2Z On Mon, 06 Jun 2011 08:56:48 -0700, Alan N1AL wrote: On Mon, 2011-06-06 at 08:10 -0700, juergen wrote: However from a communications effectiveness point of 20 watts is a much more realistic power level, especially for SSB QSO's. The difference between 10 and 20 watts is only 3 dB, half an S-unit. Compared to the 20-30 dB of QSB you often find on the HF bands, you would hardly even notice such a small difference. I think it is quite rare that 3 dB would be the difference between making a contact or not. Alan N1AL __ 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 -- VK4FD - Motorhome Mobile Elecraft Equipment K3 #679, KPA-500 #018 Living the dream!!! __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K2 off frequency
But bear in mind this is at 9996kHz, 4 kHz away from 10MHz. I thought the way the K2 PLL worked meant you had to calibrate at exactly 10MHz, so calibrating against RWM may not give correct tracking on all frequencies. It also transmits a pure carrier only for a few minutes each hour, making it hard to use. It is a pity that WWV is very rarely at a strong enough signal in Europe to be used as a calibration reference and there is currently no other one to use. 73 Dave G3YMC On 7 Jun 2011 at 15:00, Dave, G4AON wrote: Adi... further to the message by Don W3FPR, the Russian standard frequency transmitter which is very strong in Europe is RWM. For their frequencies and schedule see: http://www.irkutsk.com/radio/tis.htm 73 Dave, G4AON http://www.davesergeant.com __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K2 off frequency
Dave and all, Actually the frequency of the station makes no difference at all. The secret is that the difference between the VFO and BFO frequencies (in LSB or USB only) is equal to the frequency of the station you are tuned to. With 10 (or 15 MHz) WWV, the subtraction is easy since all but the first digits of the station frequency are zeros, so all the lower order digits will match. When using RWM or some other station that transmits on a .00 frequency, that match will only occur in the digits after the decimal - one should do the subtraction as a confirmation that there is not a 1 kHz error. 73, Don W3FPR On 6/7/2011 11:41 AM, Dave Sergeant wrote: But bear in mind this is at 9996kHz, 4 kHz away from 10MHz. I thought the way the K2 PLL worked meant you had to calibrate at exactly 10MHz, so calibrating against RWM may not give correct tracking on all frequencies. It also transmits a pure carrier only for a few minutes each hour, making it hard to use. It is a pity that WWV is very rarely at a strong enough signal in Europe to be used as a calibration reference and there is currently no other one to use. 73 Dave G3YMC __ 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
[Elecraft] [OT] K9YC's Serial Cable question
I read Jim Brown's very informative article on RFI and want to use his method to construct a K2/PC control cable using some CAT5 cable I have laying around. Hopefully Jim or someone knowledgeable about this cable can answer two questions: For UNSHIELDED twisted pair CAT5: The K2 instructions use Pin 5 for the signal return lines. Using K9YC's method, would I connect the return lines to the DB9 chassis, and then bond Pin 5 (or Pin 1, or both) to the chassis also? For SHIELDED twisted pair: The K2 instructions say to connect Pin 1 to the shield on the K2 end, leave the shield open on the PC end. Using K9YC's method, would I connect the returns to Pin 5, shield to the DB9 chassis on both ends, and then bond Pin 1 and 5 to the DB9 chassis? Thanks! 73 - N5BCN, Brian - K2 #6800 KPA100/KAT100-2, KSB2, KAT2, KIO2, K160RX, KNB2, KAF2, LP-PAN/K2 w/ Pre-amp, SignaLink USB -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/OT-K9YC-s-Serial-Cable-question-tp6450273p6450273.html Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com. __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] KX3 vs. K3 and other rigs?
I can understand the advantage of even 1 db to a serious contester over the period of a lengthy contest but for my needs, and keeping in mind maximizing battery power, the 10w of the KX3, and even 5w, is fine. I have other rigs that are capable of 100w in the shack, but now that I'm retired I plan to do a lot of portable work, especially since summer is on the way in the northern hemisphere. Fortunately, here in soCal it's nice enough to do portable operations most of the year, without the need for much more than a jacket in winter. I guess that getting older tends to mellow one out. In the past I was an extremely serious contester, especially for Field Day, but now I'll be content to improve on last year's score in a given contest. Sure, in a stocked pond you're pretty much guaranteed to catch fish, but where's the fun in that? Being DX in VK-land gives you a bit of an advantage. I'd say that 400w is more than enough power, but I'm sure that there are those of us here in the US who would use more power than 1500w it it were allowed. 72/73 de Jim - AD6CW On 6/7/2011 8:40 AM, Gary Gregory wrote: The 10W output of the KX3 can be increased to 100W via the amplifier for mobile and portable operation. To increase the output from 10 to say 30W will greatly restrict the battery life and I don't see any real advantage. Either the KX3 is a QRP radio or notadding another 10-20W available on battery power makes it less attractive to me. In VK we seem to be able to work the world on 400W and yet there are those in VK who want a change to 1Kwwill it allow us to work more stations?.maybe...maybe not. Perhaps we are just too lazy to make a few extra calls and think it is good to be told we are 20db over S9 instead of 5/9 plus I have worked a lot of stations running QRP and a dipole antenna and the last was from NY to VK using 5W, I went QRP also and we worked for 10 minutes or so. It was fun for me to work him also. My 2 cents worth...keep the change! 73's Gary __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] What is a dB worth was: Re: KX3 vs. K3 and other rigs?
True at UHF/VHF. The world if HF is quite a different place for most of us. If your purpose is to find that sweet second or two where a very brief exchange might be confirmed on HF, a difference of a few dB might count, as Pete notes. But for communications involving a lengthy exchange of information such as in a rag chew, typical QSB on HF means one must have a lot more than a dB or two of headroom above the minimum readable signal to be successful in most situations. I'm one of the great many Hams who is not a contester nor do I focus on brief 5NN exchanges with a DX station, so I never expect anything less than a 6 dB change - an S-unit - to be noticeable *over time* on HF. I start getting really interested if I find the opportunity to make a 10 dB difference. That said, many places where one might throw away a dB or so adds up. It's the difference between managing your station's system gain (or loss) 'budget' and deciding whether any single change is worth making. 73, Ron AC7AC -Original Message- There's a saying among VHF / UHF'ers in reference to coax and connector losses that every .5db counts. 73! Ken - K0PP __ 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
[Elecraft] KPA500: OPER/STBY Status Comms Bug With K3?
If I hit the Oper/Stby buttons on the KPA500, the K3 displays a message and selects the proper power drive level. However, I've enabled BAND CHG to STBY, which switches the KPA500 to STBY whenever I change bands. It does that, but going to STANDBY by changing bands does NOT send the STBY message to the K3, so the K3 drive level stays at the OPER level, even though the KPA500 is in STBY. Shouldn't the KPA500 tell the K3 it has gone to standby via QSY? That would keep things in synch better. John K3TN -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/KPA500-OPER-STBY-Status-Comms-Bug-With-K3-tp6450518p6450518.html Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com. __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] [OT] K9YC's Serial Cable question
Brian, Jim may chime in here, but these are my considerations: Beware of pin 1 - it is ground ONLY only for the K2. At the computer end, the shell is chassis ground (if it exists at all). You only use 2 of the 4 pairs in the CAT5/6 cable - one for TXD and one for RXD. So for unshielded twisted pair cable, all the returns should connect to pin 5 (the RS-232 Signal Ground). If you are using shielded CAT5/6, connect the pairs the same as for the unshielded situation, and then take your choice about the shield - connect it to pin 1 only at the K2 end to produce a Faraday shield. OR (and I would only do this if the computer and K2 are well bonded together by separate means), connect the shield to pin 1 at the K2 end and to the shell at the computer end. You could connect the K2 end also to the shell - with the KIO2, the shell is connected to ground by a wire to the board, but in the case of the KPA100, the only connection of the shell to ground is through the mechanical connection offered by the rear panel and the jackscrew sockets. 73, Don W3FPR On 6/7/2011 12:06 PM, Brian - N5BCN wrote: I read Jim Brown's very informative article on RFI and want to use his method to construct a K2/PC control cable using some CAT5 cable I have laying around. Hopefully Jim or someone knowledgeable about this cable can answer two questions: For UNSHIELDED twisted pair CAT5: The K2 instructions use Pin 5 for the signal return lines. Using K9YC's method, would I connect the return lines to the DB9 chassis, and then bond Pin 5 (or Pin 1, or both) to the chassis also? For SHIELDED twisted pair: The K2 instructions say to connect Pin 1 to the shield on the K2 end, leave the shield open on the PC end. Using K9YC's method, would I connect the returns to Pin 5, shield to the DB9 chassis on both ends, and then bond Pin 1 and 5 to the DB9 chassis? __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] KX3 vs. K3 and other rigs?
To try to put some meaningful numbers on the value of a few extra dB I looked at some recent contest scores. Actually not at the scores themselves but the number of Q's made. There is of course wide variability in this. A lot appears to depend on whether it is primarily a NA contest or international. But it might give some clue about the value of additional power. To hopefully remove some of the many variables, I looked only at the top few stations. The assumption is that these guys have good stations with good antennas in good locations. Have to believe that they put in nearly equal effort, i.e. approx the same number of hours. Implicit also is the assumption they are approx equally good operators. In the 2010 ARRL 160m contest these power levels made this many Q's: 1st 2nd QRP 805 718 LP 1078 1038 HP 1989 1776 In 2010, with the low sunspot numbers, this was basically a NA contest. Not much in the way of DX activity. Assuming other things are equal - which may or may not be the case - it looks like 13 dB (5w to 100w) is worth about a 33% increase in Q's. And 25 dB (5w to 1500w) will yield somewhat more than double. In the 2010 ARRL Sweepstakes: 1st2nd QRP 982835 LP 1257 1244 HP 1466 1453 This is a NA contest. Here 13 dB was again about a 33% increase and 25 dB something less than double. Indeed having a KW was not much help here. But if we look at longer distance and check the 2010 ARRL International DX contest (looking at stations in NA, not EU or other continents): 1st2nd QRP1021912 LP 2872 2738 HP 4362 4474 Here 13 dB gives nearly 3x as many contacts. 25 dB gives about 4.5x as many. It looks like a few extra dB may be valuable on longer paths, but not worth much within NA, which is about what you would expect. This does not address the question of what 3 dB is worth. A little hard to figure. Within NA 13 dB yields about 33%. So what would 3 dB yield? Dunno, but my guess is not much. How much is 3 dB worth on longer paths? Again hard to say but there is probably some threshold, or minimum required, to work the DX. Is that threshold 3 dB, i.e. 10w? Honestly probably not. Somewhere between 5w and 100w, but unknown. Maybe some enterprising souls could get together, a few run 5w, a few run 10w, a few 25w, and a few 50w. Compare results when it is over. 73 de dave ab9ca/4 On 6/7/11 7:23 AM, drewko wrote: There is another way of looking at it-- how many additional contacts would potentially be available by utilizing an increase of just 3db? I don't know the answer but there is a somewhat analogous situation in astronomy having to do with the brightness of stars. They are also measured on a logarithmic scale, called magnitude, each magnitude representing twice or half the brightness level of the following or preceding magnitude. A difference of one magnitude does not appear very large to the eye, yet the ability to see one magnitude fainter can yield three times as many stars. I imagine some similar effect might pertain to radio waves. BTW, I'm not asking for more power in the KX3; would be quite content with 10 watts, same as my K3. 73, Drew AF2Z On Mon, 06 Jun 2011 08:56:48 -0700, Alan N1AL wrote: On Mon, 2011-06-06 at 08:10 -0700, juergen wrote: However from a communications effectiveness point of 20 watts is a much more realistic power level, especially for SSB QSO's. The difference between 10 and 20 watts is only 3 dB, half an S-unit. Compared to the 20-30 dB of QSB you often find on the HF bands, you would hardly even notice such a small difference. I think it is quite rare that 3 dB would be the difference between making a contact or not. Alan N1AL __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] KX3 vs. K3 and other rigs?
It all depends how close the desired signal is to the noise level. Check out http://www.ab7e.com/weak_signal/mdd.html However, the original argument that 20 watts is better than 10 watts seems pretty silly to me since you can carry that flag all the way up to power levels that create their own ionosphere. We can all gain FAR more ERP from wisely choosing/building a better portable antenna compared to a backpack whip than we would from doubling the power out of the rig. 73, Dave AB7E The difference between 10 and 20 watts is only 3 dB, half an S-unit. Compared to the 20-30 dB of QSB you often find on the HF bands, you would hardly even notice such a small difference. I think it is quite rare that 3 dB would be the difference between making a contact or not. Alan N1AL __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] KX3 vs. K3 and other rigs?
IMHO it's the need to shout louder than the other guys in a pile-up! I've been DX and heard the roar!! I know many a contest station that would and have spent $1000's for an extra 3db. There must to a reason. -- Dave G KK7SS DN06ig Richland, WA '59 Morris Minor 1000 '65 Sprite - in process '76 Midget - shared with my #4 son. '06 Honda Civic Hybrid __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] KX3 vs. K3 and other rigs?
Aye, and there's the rub of the matter. I just spent 20 minutes surfing the web looking for the definition of QRP. Of the half dozen or so well known sites I visited, in the US and abroad, the definition of QRP is 5 Watts CW and 10W SSB MAX. Not 20 if you got it, not 30 if running on an outboard PS, etc... The simple fact is you can't support more than 10W out and keep battery life in the realm of reality. You can't just put a bigger battery in it and keep the form factor. I really don't see what the problem is. If you're using it as a trail radio weight and battery life mean everything. If your a dedicated QRPer 10W is the limit. If you want to use the radio mobile buy the amp. If you want to run mobile with ridiculously inefficient antennas, and QRP your a masochist and need to be ignored. ;-) If none of the above fits buy a K3 and be well. On Wed, 8 Jun 2011 01:40:27 +1000 Gary Gregory garyvk...@gmail.com wrote: Either the KX3 is a QRP radio or notadding another 10-20W available on battery power makes it less attractive to me. -- R. Kevin Stover AC0H __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] KPA500 Kits
You must have been number one in line! Grats! On 6/7/2011 9:37 AM, Jerry T. Dowell wrote: I received shipping confirmation for my kit yesterday. Have patience! Jerry AI6L -Original Message- From: Jim Brown [mailto:j...@audiosystemsgroup.com] Sent: Monday, June 06, 2011 10:41 AM To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] KPA500 Kits On 6/6/2011 8:27 AM, Rob May wrote: I don't think anyone has received a kit or even shipping confirmation. I really wish Elecraft would give a realistic ship date instead of stringing us along. Elecraft is a small company -- they are my neighbors, including some of their employees. They have always had the top priority of doing it right. From what I can see by watching this reflector, they're currently making sure that the building instructions make sense by having a few folks close to them build a kit from the instructions and re-writing as needed. I'm waiting for a kit, and I'm happy to know that it will be right when I get it. 73, Jim K9YC __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] KPA500 Kits
I was told that I was #40 in line and I ordered two hours after it became available on line. Sent from my IPhone On Jun 7, 2011, at 12:36 PM, Mike Fatchett W0MU w...@w0mu.com wrote: You must have been number one in line! Grats! On 6/7/2011 9:37 AM, Jerry T. Dowell wrote: I received shipping confirmation for my kit yesterday. Have patience! Jerry AI6L -Original Message- From: Jim Brown [mailto:j...@audiosystemsgroup.com] Sent: Monday, June 06, 2011 10:41 AM To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] KPA500 Kits On 6/6/2011 8:27 AM, Rob May wrote: I don't think anyone has received a kit or even shipping confirmation. I really wish Elecraft would give a realistic ship date instead of stringing us along. Elecraft is a small company -- they are my neighbors, including some of their employees. They have always had the top priority of doing it right. From what I can see by watching this reflector, they're currently making sure that the building instructions make sense by having a few folks close to them build a kit from the instructions and re-writing as needed. I'm waiting for a kit, and I'm happy to know that it will be right when I get it. 73, Jim K9YC __ 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 __ 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 __ 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
[Elecraft] What is a dB worth
Excellent point about seeing 3 times more stars with a gain of 1 magnitude (although 1 magnitude is 2.5 times brighter, so a little more than 3 dB). Also an excellent point about 1 dB yielding meaningful results in contest score even if no difference is discernible in an individual contact. I would add that if there is an opportunity to get small improvements in several areas, taking the attitude of looking at impact of a single improvement on a single contact can likewise lead to missing the big picture. Few of us can afford going for the last 0.5 dB in every part of a home station. I know I can't, but doing so is a lot more practical for a portable station. And getting the results of such a pursuit may be much more important for the portable station. Here is how I look at my portable capability. While it is part of the ham hobby, the portable HF radio is an essential piece of safety equipment for hiking expeditions. (OK, I could get a satellite device, but I don't like to pay the yearly fees.) When the need for an emergency call comes, I won't be in a good location, and the time of day won't match the conditions. My HF radio may not in fact be able to reach anyone at all, at least not immediately. But when I make decisions about portable gear, I want to be able to say that I did my best, meaning I went for all those individual 1 dB improvements that I could, within weight constraints. Together they will make a difference, and the 7 dB of going from 2 W in my KX1 to 10 W in a KX3 looks like a no-brainer. (I understand that the KX3 will be able to achieve 10 W using the built-in batteries.) A 30 W amp with built-in rechargeable batteries would certainly be interesting to look at too, but may not fit in my packing weight limits. 73, Erik K7TV It is pretty widely accepted in contesting that an improvement in *either* receive or transmit capability of 1 dB will yield a useful increase in the number of QSOs over a 48-hour contest, even if it has an indiscernible effect on 99.5 percent of your contacts. 73, Pete N4ZR The World Contest Station Database, updated daily at www.conteststations.com The Reverse Beacon Network at http://reversebeacon.net, blog at reversebeacon.blogspot.com, spots at telnet.reversebeacon.net, port 7000 On 6/7/2011 8:23 AM, drewko wrote: There is another way of looking at it-- how many additional contacts would potentially be available by utilizing an increase of just 3db? I don't know the answer but there is a somewhat analogous situation in astronomy having to do with the brightness of stars. They are also measured on a logarithmic scale, called magnitude, each magnitude representing twice or half the brightness level of the following or preceding magnitude. A difference of one magnitude does not appear very large to the eye, yet the ability to see one magnitude fainter can yield three times as many stars. I imagine some similar effect might pertain to radio waves. BTW, I'm not asking for more power in the KX3; would be quite content with 10 watts, same as my K3. 73, Drew AF2Z __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] What is a dB worth [END of Thread]
In the interest of minimizing list overhead and noise, let's end this and related threads for now. This topic, like pro/con CW requirements etc., reoccur endlessly on most discussion groups. 73, Eric Elecraft List moderator __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] KX3 vs. K3 and other rigs? [End of QRP/Power thread]
Let's end the power/QRP discussion. 73, Eric List moderator __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] KX3 vs. K3 and other rigs?
I've seen this kind of calculation before, and for some events, like Field Day, it's clear that QRP can compete on scores quite effectively. But that's using CW, and probably also PSK31. Dave's numbers suggest that it might also be different for North American contacts (for those of us within North America), compared to crossing an ocean. But for me, SSB is much less effective -- I've too often been able to copy people easily, and have them not react to my 10 watts at all. But to me, that means use CW for contests, and if I try SSB I shouldn't worry about not getting through. Meanwhile, I'll work on better antennas, and be more persistent so that when the propagation gods smile I'll be there. Still, I may get this 100-watt thing when it comes out, or at least within a year or two. Peter W0LLN On Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 12:20 PM, dave ho13d...@gmail.com wrote: To try to put some meaningful numbers on the value of a few extra dB I looked at some recent contest scores. __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] KX3 vs. K3 and other rigs?
Interesting analysis Dave. Assuming everything is logarithmic, a 33% increase in contacts for a 13 db power increase implies 7% more contacts for 3 dB more power: 10^[(3/13) * log(1.33)] = 1.07 And 100% more contacts for a 25 dB power increase implies 8.7% per 3 dB: 10^[(3/25) * log (2)] = 1.087 However, I think that overstates the advantage of higher power. The higher-power stations also probably had better antennas and other equipment as well. But it does put a useful upper bound on the number. In a non-competitive situation I would expect the difference to be even less. Alan N1AL On Tue, 2011-06-07 at 12:20 -0500, dave wrote: To try to put some meaningful numbers on the value of a few extra dB I looked at some recent contest scores. Actually not at the scores themselves but the number of Q's made. There is of course wide variability in this. A lot appears to depend on whether it is primarily a NA contest or international. But it might give some clue about the value of additional power. To hopefully remove some of the many variables, I looked only at the top few stations. The assumption is that these guys have good stations with good antennas in good locations. Have to believe that they put in nearly equal effort, i.e. approx the same number of hours. Implicit also is the assumption they are approx equally good operators. In the 2010 ARRL 160m contest these power levels made this many Q's: 1st 2nd QRP 805 718 LP 1078 1038 HP 1989 1776 In 2010, with the low sunspot numbers, this was basically a NA contest. Not much in the way of DX activity. Assuming other things are equal - which may or may not be the case - it looks like 13 dB (5w to 100w) is worth about a 33% increase in Q's. And 25 dB (5w to 1500w) will yield somewhat more than double. In the 2010 ARRL Sweepstakes: 1st2nd QRP 982835 LP 1257 1244 HP 1466 1453 This is a NA contest. Here 13 dB was again about a 33% increase and 25 dB something less than double. Indeed having a KW was not much help here. But if we look at longer distance and check the 2010 ARRL International DX contest (looking at stations in NA, not EU or other continents): 1st2nd QRP1021912 LP 2872 2738 HP 4362 4474 Here 13 dB gives nearly 3x as many contacts. 25 dB gives about 4.5x as many. It looks like a few extra dB may be valuable on longer paths, but not worth much within NA, which is about what you would expect. This does not address the question of what 3 dB is worth. A little hard to figure. Within NA 13 dB yields about 33%. So what would 3 dB yield? Dunno, but my guess is not much. How much is 3 dB worth on longer paths? Again hard to say but there is probably some threshold, or minimum required, to work the DX. Is that threshold 3 dB, i.e. 10w? Honestly probably not. Somewhere between 5w and 100w, but unknown. Maybe some enterprising souls could get together, a few run 5w, a few run 10w, a few 25w, and a few 50w. Compare results when it is over. 73 de dave ab9ca/4 On 6/7/11 7:23 AM, drewko wrote: There is another way of looking at it-- how many additional contacts would potentially be available by utilizing an increase of just 3db? I don't know the answer but there is a somewhat analogous situation in astronomy having to do with the brightness of stars. They are also measured on a logarithmic scale, called magnitude, each magnitude representing twice or half the brightness level of the following or preceding magnitude. A difference of one magnitude does not appear very large to the eye, yet the ability to see one magnitude fainter can yield three times as many stars. I imagine some similar effect might pertain to radio waves. BTW, I'm not asking for more power in the KX3; would be quite content with 10 watts, same as my K3. 73, Drew AF2Z On Mon, 06 Jun 2011 08:56:48 -0700, Alan N1AL wrote: On Mon, 2011-06-06 at 08:10 -0700, juergen wrote: However from a communications effectiveness point of 20 watts is a much more realistic power level, especially for SSB QSO's. The difference between 10 and 20 watts is only 3 dB, half an S-unit. Compared to the 20-30 dB of QSB you often find on the HF bands, you would hardly even notice such a small difference. I think it is quite rare that 3 dB would be the difference between making a contact or not. Alan N1AL __ 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 __ Elecraft mailing list Home:
Re: [Elecraft] What is a dB worth was: Re: KX3 vs. K3 and other rigs?
Well when I was in to EME on 2m I was hunting for every .1 dB I could find. /Jim SM2EKM -- On 2011-06-07 16:42, Rose wrote: There's a saying among VHF / UHF'ers in reference to coax and connector losses that every .5db counts. 73! Ken - K0PP __ 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
[Elecraft] K2 Dial Calibration web update
I have just updated my website www.w3fpr.com article dealing with K2 Dial Calibration with the procedure provided by EA3ADV. This added information is an adaptation to the N6KR method for setting the 4 MHz reference, but details the use of RWM at 9996.00 kHz instead of 10 or 15 MHz WWV. If you are in a part of the world where you cannot receive WWV well, you can adapt this method to any broadcast station having a known frequency. 73, Don W3FPR __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] What is a dB worth was: Re: KX3 vs. K3 and other rigs?
On 6/7/2011 6:14 AM, Pete Smith wrote: It is pretty widely accepted in contesting that an improvement in *either* receive or transmit capability of 1 dB will yield a useful increase in the number of QSOs over a 48-hour contest, even if it has an indiscernible effect on 99.5 percent of your contacts. On the basis of statistical analysis of scores, one of the guys in our contest club came up with the number that 1 dB is good for a 2.6% increase in a Sweepstakes score. 3dB would be good for 1.026 x 1.026 x 1.026 = 8%, 7dB would be good for 20%. The advantage can show up in several ways -- your ability to get over the other guy's noise, to hold a frequency, to get answered sooner when there are multiple callers, to pick up a rare multiplier. It doesn't matter how you get the advantage -- better antenna, low loss in the feedline, or power amp, and as you noted, it also helps to be able to hear better, whether by reducing RX noise, using dedicated RX antennas, choking noise sources, choking feedlines to reduce noise pickup, exploding the chargers for power tools and mobility scooters, etc. :) 73, Jim K9YC __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Elecraft General Interest: SFGate: Robert Helliwell, radio science pioneer, dies
Jim, It was possible to hear whistlers from storm centers long before you could hear the thunder. I doubt the whistlers you heard was from a storm that was close enough to hear the thunder: Very low frequency (VLF) radio waves shoot past the ionosphere and into the next region of space, the magnetosphere. Here, the atmosphere is completely ionized. The Earth's magnetic field controls the motions of charged particles, creating channels of ions aligned with the horseshoe-shaped magnetic field lines. These channels trap VLF radio waves, guiding them between opposite hemispheres along a path that reaches up to 15,000 miles from the surface. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/may/robert-helliwell-obit-052011.html I visited the lab when I was a freshman (before the advent of dirt) as part of the tour they gave incoming engineering students. -Rex- K1HI Rex Lint Merrimack, NH WWW.QRZ.COM/db/k1hi __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] [OT] K9YC's Serial Cable question
On 6/7/2011 9:06 AM, Brian - N5BCN wrote: For UNSHIELDED twisted pair CAT5: The K2 instructions use Pin 5 for the signal return lines. Using K9YC's method, would I connect the return lines to the DB9 chassis, and then bond Pin 5 (or Pin 1, or both) to the chassis also? Do not use pin 5 for the return, use the shell of the DB9. For SHIELDED twisted pair: The K2 instructions say to connect Pin 1 to the shield on the K2 end, leave the shield open on the PC end. Using K9YC's method, would I connect the returns to Pin 5, shield to the DB9 chassis on both ends, and then bond Pin 1 and 5 to the DB9 chassis? For shielded twisted pair, connect signal returns to pin 5, and the shield to the DB9 shells on both ends. Do NOT bond pin 1 or pin 5 to the chassis. These wiring configurations are the most RFI-proof, because they prevent pin 1 problems at both the computer and the radio. Shielded twisted pair should be needed only when the TX antenna is VERY close to the computer (i.e. within about 10 ft, or perhaps 20 ft and high power. 73, Jim Brown K9YC __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] What is a dB worth was: Re: KX3 vs. K3 and other rigs? [Thread already closed]
These threads were closed earlier this morning. Please take the discussion off-list. 73, Eric List moderator (Really! ) On 6/7/2011 11:26 AM, Jim Brown wrote: On 6/7/2011 6:14 AM, Pete Smith wrote: It is pretty widely accepted in contesting that an improvement in *either* receive or transmit capability of 1 dB will yield a useful increase in the number of QSOs over a 48-hour contest, even if it has an indiscernible effect on 99.5 percent of your contacts. On the basis of statistical analysis of scores, .html __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] [OT] K9YC's Serial Cable question
Jim, I could not assure anyone that the Signal Ground (pin 5) is connected to the shell of the DB9 in each and every computer or USB to RS-232 adapter. In fact I am holding an adapter right now that has no continuity between pin 5 and the shell. That adapter will not work with your suggested connections because there is no signal return path. What about those who use plastic bodied connectors? It will not have a return path through the shell for those either. The signal return path for RS-232 must always be on pin 5 - whether the shell is grounded or not, it will always work. 73, Don W3FPR On 6/7/2011 2:35 PM, Jim Brown wrote: On 6/7/2011 9:06 AM, Brian - N5BCN wrote: For UNSHIELDED twisted pair CAT5: The K2 instructions use Pin 5 for the signal return lines. Using K9YC's method, would I connect the return lines to the DB9 chassis, and then bond Pin 5 (or Pin 1, or both) to the chassis also? Do not use pin 5 for the return, use the shell of the DB9. __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] [OT] K9YC's Serial Cable question
Jim, I could not assure anyone that the Signal Ground (pin 5) is connected to the shell of the DB9 in each and every computer or USB to RS-232 adapter. In fact I am holding an adapter right now that has no continuity between pin 5 and the shell. That adapter will not work with your suggested connections because there is no signal return path. What about those who use plastic bodied connectors? It will not have a return path through the shell for those either. The signal return path for RS-232 must always be on pin 5 - whether the shell is grounded or not, it will always work. 73, Don W3FPR On 6/7/2011 2:35 PM, Jim Brown wrote: On 6/7/2011 9:06 AM, Brian - N5BCN wrote: For UNSHIELDED twisted pair CAT5: The K2 instructions use Pin 5 for the signal return lines. Using K9YC's method, would I connect the return lines to the DB9 chassis, and then bond Pin 5 (or Pin 1, or both) to the chassis also? Do not use pin 5 for the return, use the shell of the DB9. __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] KPA500: OPER/STBY Status Comms Bug With K3?
This is a timing problem in the communications, and will be fixed in the next firmware release. Jack Brindle, W6FB Elecraft Engineering On Jun 7, 2011, at 10:05 AM, John K3TN wrote: If I hit the Oper/Stby buttons on the KPA500, the K3 displays a message and selects the proper power drive level. However, I've enabled BAND CHG to STBY, which switches the KPA500 to STBY whenever I change bands. It does that, but going to STANDBY by changing bands does NOT send the STBY message to the K3, so the K3 drive level stays at the OPER level, even though the KPA500 is in STBY. Shouldn't the KPA500 tell the K3 it has gone to standby via QSY? That would keep things in synch better. John K3TN -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/KPA500-OPER-STBY-Status-Comms-Bug-With-K3-tp6450518p6450518.html Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com. __ 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 __ 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
[Elecraft] K3 and PW1 control
At SeaPac I had a few folks ask about controlling their PW1 from the K3. As you know the K3 uses BCD data that is compatible with the Yaesu Quadra. So I did some research today and found this nifty program call DDUtil. I set the connection port to one of the LP-Bridge virtual ports and they talk together just fine so far. There is an Other tab in DDUtil that allows you to connect a level converter from a hardware serial port to the PW1 amp. You set that port in DDUtil and check the enable box. This seems like it should work finebut alas...I don't have a PW-1 to test it with. Here's the PW1 setup info from the wiki page: IC-PW1 If you wish to have your *ICOM IC-PW1* linear amplifier follow *PowerSDR* automatically from band to band this control group is where you set it up. You will need a *CT-17* or some other *CI-V* level converter. *Note:* Even though a *CT-17* will work, it is suggested that a *Single Radio CI-V Interface*, such as the ones sold by W2ENYhttp://members.fortunecity.com/w2eny/single_civ/, be used in lieu of the *CT-17*. The reason for this is the *CT-17* re-broadcasts every message it receives back to *DDUtil* which increases the CPU overhead and cuts down the efficiency and response time in *DDUtil*. Also, the following controls will need to be set for this function. - *Port* - Select the hardware port number, from the drop-down list, you wish to use to connect your *IC-PW1* via a *CI-V* level converter. - *Enabled* - Check to enable the function. - *Disable Broadcast* - When checked will turn off the broadcast of frequency data to this port. Leave this control un-checked so frequency data will flow to the *IC-PW1*. - *CI-V Address (ra) *- This is the address of the *IC-PW1*. *DDUtil* will automatically pick this address up when the *IC-PW1* polls *DDUtil*. No action is required on the user's part and the *ra* box is not accessible and is shown for information purposes only. - *CI-V Address (ta)* - This is the hex address used by *DDUtil* during communication with the *IC-PW1*. It is suggested that the default address of 33H be used, but any other address between*00~7F* may be used. - *DTR* - Select this check box if your CI-V adapter or other equipment requires power from the *DTR* line. Check the manufactures instructions. - *RTS* - Select this check box if your CI-V adapter or other equipment requires power from the *RTS* line. Check the manufactures instructions. Additionally, The user will need to follow the *Program the CI-V address* procedure in section 3 of the *IC-PW1 Instruction Manual*. If you don't have a copy of the Instruction Manual one can be downloaded herehttp://www.icomamerica.com/en/downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?Document=35 . This is normally for an exciter, but in this case it will be used for * DDUtil*. Whenever the *IC-PW1* enters into this mode *DDUtil* will recognize the query and furnish the appropriate information back to the *IC-PW1*. This only takes a few seconds and only has to be done once, normally. See the How To http://k5fr.com/ddutilwiki/index.php?title=How_To section for additional information on this function. Here's the DDUtil wiki address: http://k5fr.com/ddutilwiki/index.php?title=Main_Page 73 Greg AB7R __ 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
[Elecraft] Test
Sorry for the bandwidth 73, Don W3FPR __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] [OT] K9YC's Serial Cable question
On 6/7/2011 12:13 PM, Don Wilhelm wrote: Jim, I could not assure anyone that the Signal Ground (pin 5) is connected to the shell of the DB9 in each and every computer or USB to RS-232 adapter. In fact I am holding an adapter right now that has no continuity between pin 5 and the shell. No question that some poorly built junk is made like this. That adapter will not work with your suggested connections because there is no signal return path. What about those who use plastic bodied connectors? It will not have a return path through the shell for those either. Any equipment with a DB9 connector that does not have a conductive shell, and with system common bonded to that shell at some point is very likely to have issues with hum, buzz, or RFI. Yes, some poorly designed crap is made that way, but we should avoid it like the plague that can easily become. The signal return path for RS-232 must always be on pin 5 - whether the shell is grounded or not, it will always work. It may work without RF present, but it won't work if it couples hum, buzz, or RFI. I've seen RFI so bad that it shuts the computer down -- that's how this cable came to be developed! I'm sticking with my original advice. Common mode current on signal cables is one of the most common causes of hum, buzz, and RFI. We don't want that current to go to the common bus on the PC board, we want it to go to a ground plane, grounding star point, or a shielding enclosure. That's why I'm so insistent about this. Equipment that does not allow proper wiring techniques is BAD equipment, and should be avoided. 73, Jim K9YC 73, Don W3FPR On 6/7/2011 2:35 PM, Jim Brown wrote: On 6/7/2011 9:06 AM, Brian - N5BCN wrote: For UNSHIELDED twisted pair CAT5: The K2 instructions use Pin 5 for the signal return lines. Using K9YC's method, would I connect the return lines to the DB9 chassis, and then bond Pin 5 (or Pin 1, or both) to the chassis also? Do not use pin 5 for the return, use the shell of the DB9. __ 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
[Elecraft] KPA500 Kits
I ordered about 2 hours after the window opened online also. No tracking number was given with my confirmation, and my debit card has not been billed, so perhaps the fat lady has not sung yet! Jerry AI6L Bill Hammond wham727 at aol.com Tue Jun 7 13:54:19 EDT 2011 I was told that I was #40 in line and I ordered two hours after it became available on line. On Jun 7, 2011, at 12:36 PM, Mike Fatchett W0MU w0mu at w0mu.com wrote: You must have been number one in line! Grats! On 6/7/2011 9:37 AM, Jerry T. Dowell wrote: I received shipping confirmation for my kit yesterday. Have patience! Jerry AI6L __ 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
[Elecraft] K3 Hi Cut Low Cut granularity bug?
K3 Hi Cut Low Cut granularity bug? Lately I've been running a number of digital modes (JT65A, PSK31 RTTY) on the HF bands. The K3's APF and dual PB filters really help to copy weak RTTY signals, especially when there is QRM. When using the JT65A mode, signals even weaker than -20 dB can be copied. These very weak signals are often effected by much stronger signals within the receiver's pass band. Often, these very strong signals will act on the K3's AGC and push the weaker signals farther into the noise, making them uncopyable. I have found that adjusting the K3's 'Hi' and 'Lo' cut filters to be the quickest and easiest way to reduce the QRM from adjacent loud signals. At times an offending strong station is very close to the weak signal's frequency. The 'Hi-Cut' and 'Lo-Cut' filters must be adjusted so they attenuate the nearby loud interfering signal but not the weak signal you are attempting to copy. Unfortunately, these controls can only be adjusted in 100 Hz increments. Although the SHIFT can be set up for 10Hz or 50 Hz increments, at present the granularity of the K3's WIDTH, HI CUT, and LOW CUT controls can only be set to 100 Hz in the CW Digital modes. Also, when the SHIFT granularity (CONFIG:PB CTL) is changed from 50Hz to 10Hz, the Hi Cut and Low Cut controls do not work at all! Is this a BUG or a FEATURE? I'm presently using K3 firmware update MCU 4.36 . It would be very helpful if the 'Hi-Cut' and 'Lo-Cut' filtering could be adjusted in smaller increments than the present 100Hz. Being able to fine tune the Hi and Low cut filters would really help to quickly and easily reduce QRM that might develop either above or below the digital signal being copied. I hope that this request can be implemented in a future revision of K3 software. 73, Rich - K1HTV __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] [OT] K9YC's Serial Cable question
I do not doubt about Jim's advice, but I sense that only a few are willing to replace those computers or USB to serial adapters that are classified by Jim's definition of bad equipment with good alternatives (BTW, I agree with Jim on the bad equipment. Many DO need a signal return connection to pin 5 or they will not work. Jim has given you the trouble signs, so if your equipment needs the return path to be pin 5 rather than the shell, by all means connect it there - but do heed Jim's cautions about common mode noise. If you want to build a cable that meets both requirements, use shielded CAT 5/6 cable and wire it as Jim suggests - that will work in all cases. 73, Don W3FPR On 6/7/2011 4:57 PM, Jim Brown wrote: It may work without RF present, but it won't work if it couples hum, buzz, or RFI. I've seen RFI so bad that it shuts the computer down -- that's how this cable came to be developed! I'm sticking with my original advice. Common mode current on signal cables is one of the most common causes of hum, buzz, and RFI. We don't want that current to go to the common bus on the PC board, we want it to go to a ground plane, grounding star point, or a shielding enclosure. That's why I'm so insistent about this. Equipment that does not allow proper wiring techniques is BAD equipment, and should be avoided. 73, Jim K9YC __ 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
[Elecraft] 3 min xmit timeout?
Hi all, First off, i cant say enough good stuff about the k3 kit i recently bought and built. Thank you Elecraft! I am interested in remoting my k3 but am hung up somewhat on the requirement to stop transmission if the radio is keyed for 3 minutes straight. I've dug through the config settings and the manual and i just wanted to make sure that the k3 won't do this for me, before i build something to do it for me. If i read the manuals correctly, are there any plans to include this capability in future hw/sw releases? Thanks 73 Matt NM6W __ 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
[Elecraft] KPA500 kits
Just found out that my kit has not shipped. False alarm. I added an item to the order and was sent a copy of the revised invoice, which showed a shipping date of yesterday. Indeed, no kits have shipped yet. Sorry for raising false hopes! Jerry AI6L __ 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
[Elecraft] OT: Soldering Practice THANK YOU TO ALL
Wow...I can't believe the numbers of responses I received with so many really great suggestion! What a GREAT group! Thanks to everyone who replied!! de Doug KR2Q __ 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
[Elecraft] 144 Transverter Wish List?
If/When a 144 Transverter is in the design stage could you look into giving it a BroadBand receive range? On the upper end I would like to see it go to the National Weather Service at 165.xxx mhz, and on the lower end I would like to get to the NOAA LEO sat's at 137.xxx (Wide Band FM if you please). The KX3 will be both my home QTH and portable rig so that's why the request for the 137mhz. tnx de George WD0AKZ -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/144-Transverter-Wish-List-tp6451605p6451605.html Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com. __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] [OT] K9YC's Serial Cable question
On 6/7/2011 2:30 PM, Don Wilhelm wrote: sense that only a few are willing to replace those computers or USB to serial adapters that are classified by Jim's definition of bad equipment with good alternatives (BTW, I agree with Jim on the bad equipment. Many DO need a signal return connection to pin 5 or they will not work. All should understand that Don and I are friends and have the greatest respect for each other's experience and advice. FWIW, I've never seen a COMPUTER or ham rig with a DB9 that doesn't have a conductive shell. The very nice Quatech PCMCIA 2-port serial adapters also have conductive shells that are properly bonded. I have one that I've used on many Field Days and other fixed and portable operations since 2003, and I recently bought two more. I have no doubt that there are cheap USB adapters floating around, but because good stuff is also cheap, it's better to toss the junk and avoid the problems. Remember also that a shield that isn't connected to circuit reference or to the shielding enclosure of the equipment doesn't work as a shield. Cables that are short as a fraction of a wavelength (1/20 wavelength or so) can have the shield bonded at only one end if it's not also carrying the signal return. This is often done with balanced audio cables as a band-aid for pin 1 problems. A 3-6 ft cable between computer and rig bonded at only one end is likely to be just fine below 10M. Another point that I hope isn't lost on folks -- improper bonding and shielding causes RF noise to ESCAPE from equipment and radiate into our receivers, just as it allows RF to get INTO equipment and cause lockups. Yet another reason that I'm so bitchy about this stuff. :) 73, Jim K9YC __ 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
[Elecraft] Legendary Elecraft Service - not!
Having purchased amateur radio stuff from 20 or so different suppliers, I am surprised to have to report that, after a recent order, Elecraft has become only the second with which I am not completely satisfied (the first being Andrews Communications in Sydney.) It appears the legendary Elecraft service has become a casualty of the rapid growth of the company. Perhaps I will have to revert to Icomism! Also, this list has changed over time and is now less relevant to my interests, so I intend to unsubscribe. I want to say thank you to the Ron's, Don's and others (and especially Ron ZL1TW SK) who have been immensely helpful on this list over the years. QNO 73 de ZL3IN __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Legendary Elecraft Service - not!
Paul, The buck stops with myself and Eric. If you have a complaint about our customer service, please contact us off-line and we'll deal with it immediately. I can assure you that our CS department's response time and commitment to solving problems has not wavered. Example: I was doing a demo of the KX3 for the team yesterday, during which I briefly had the monitor gear (a K3 and P3) set up wrong. Dale, our CS lead in Watsonville, realized what was going on within a few milliseconds, and told me what buttons to push. On the one hand I was chagrined that he knew my firmware better than I do, but on the other hand, that's why we hired him. 73, Wayne N6KR On Jun 7, 2011, at 3:26 PM, Paul Saville wrote: Having purchased amateur radio stuff from 20 or so different suppliers, I am surprised to have to report that, after a recent order, Elecraft has become only the second with which I am not completely satisfied (the first being Andrews Communications in Sydney.) It appears the legendary Elecraft service has become a casualty of the rapid growth of the company. __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3/100 Loaded for sale.
Hi Ian, Saw your sale on ebay. Will you allow for pick up in Pleasanton so this doesn't need to ship? Thank you. Saraj KU6F -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/K3-100-Loaded-for-sale-tp6443172p6451601.html Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com. __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Legendary Elecraft Service - not!
Paul, These guys own, build, use and test everything. That is one of the very few signs of the best, successful companies in the US or anywhere. There are few other vendors where find that commitment! I have been a customer since 1999 or thereabouts and I know what I am speaking as I deal with the crap from so many other Co's. Let me also add their process performance including customer service would embarrass most Co's. And that is what it is all about: process, process, process. I used to teach it and I personally think Wayne and Eric live by it. They are tops. They don't pay me for this, they should, but I have sent them a lot of $'s for their equipment. Finally, please, anyone reading this, comment off list and let's not proliferate the obvious. :-). This is not a cult, just a passion for quality 73, Bill K9YEQ -Original Message- Paul, The buck stops with myself and Eric. If you have a complaint about our customer service, please contact us off-line and we'll deal with it immediately. I can assure you that our CS department's response time and commitment to solving problems has not wavered. Example: I was doing a demo of the KX3 for the team yesterday, during which I briefly had the monitor gear (a K3 and P3) set up wrong. Dale, our CS lead in Watsonville, realized what was going on within a few milliseconds, and told me what buttons to push. On the one hand I was chagrined that he knew my firmware better than I do, but on the other hand, that's why we hired him. 73, Wayne N6KR On Jun 7, 2011, at 3:26 PM, Paul Saville wrote: Having purchased amateur radio stuff from 20 or so different suppliers, I am surprised to have to report that, after a recent order, Elecraft has become only the second with which I am not completely satisfied (the first being Andrews Communications in Sydney.) It appears the legendary Elecraft service has become a casualty of the rapid growth of the company. __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] [OT] K9YC's Serial Cable question
I wonder if some people are looking at the DB plastic housing and not realizing there's a metal shell around the pins/sockets. In many cables these are left floating, sigh! Ron AC7AC __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 Hi Cut Low Cut granularity bug?
Also, when the SHIFT granularity (CONFIG:PB CTL) is changed from 50Hz to 10Hz, the Hi Cut and Low Cut controls do not work at all! Is this a BUG ora FEATURE? I'm presently using K3 firmware update MCU 4.36 . Feature ... as documented every since the 10 Hz steps for shift/width was first provided in beta testing. 73, ... Joe, W4TV On 6/7/2011 5:26 PM, Rich - K1HTV wrote: K3 Hi Cut Low Cut granularity bug? Lately I've been running a number of digital modes (JT65A, PSK31 RTTY) on the HF bands. The K3's APF and dual PB filters really help to copy weak RTTY signals, especially when there is QRM. When using the JT65A mode, signals even weaker than -20 dB can be copied. These very weak signals are often effected by much stronger signals within the receiver's pass band. Often, these very strong signals will act on the K3's AGC and push the weaker signals farther into the noise, making them uncopyable. I have found that adjusting the K3's 'Hi' and 'Lo' cut filters to be the quickest and easiest way to reduce the QRM from adjacent loud signals. At times an offending strong station is very close to the weak signal's frequency. The 'Hi-Cut' and 'Lo-Cut' filters must be adjusted so they attenuate the nearby loud interfering signal but not the weak signal you are attempting to copy. Unfortunately, these controls can only be adjusted in 100 Hz increments. Although the SHIFT can be set up for 10Hz or 50 Hz increments, at present the granularity of the K3's WIDTH, HI CUT, and LOW CUT controls can only be set to 100 Hz in the CW Digital modes. Also, when the SHIFT granularity (CONFIG:PB CTL) is changed from 50Hz to 10Hz, the Hi Cut and Low Cut controls do not work at all! Is this a BUG or a FEATURE? I'm presently using K3 firmware update MCU 4.36 . It would be very helpful if the 'Hi-Cut' and 'Lo-Cut' filtering could be adjusted in smaller increments than the present 100Hz. Being able to fine tune the Hi and Low cut filters would really help to quickly and easily reduce QRM that might develop either above or below the digital signal being copied. I hope that this request can be implemented in a future revision of K3 software. 73, Rich - K1HTV __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 and PW1 control
So I did some research today and found this nifty program call DDUtil. In spite of extensive research, I have yet to see DDUTIL working with any rig other than Flex/PowerDSR. There was certainly no support for using any transceiver/protocol other than the Flex/PowerDSR when I last reviewed the on-line information. All of the available information indicated an intent by the developer to move to tighter integration with PowerDSR using the proprietary Flex protocols. While it may be possible to make DDUTIL work with PowerSDR/IF and LP-Bridge if one is using LP-Pan, it would be nice to see a fully documented, functional installation of DDUTIL *alone* with the K3 and logging software such as WriteLog, N1MM Logger, Logger32, HRD, DX4Win, DXLab Suite, etc. Note: DXLab Suite can directly control a PW-1 using the Secondary Serial Port function and the (discontinued) microHAM Band Decoder, (current) microHAM Station Master, microKEYER II, DigiKeyer II and MK2R/MK2R+ can regenerate CI-V data to control a PW-1 from the CAT data of *any* supported transceiver. 73, ... Joe, W4TV On 6/7/2011 4:21 PM, Greg wrote: At SeaPac I had a few folks ask about controlling their PW1 from the K3. As you know the K3 uses BCD data that is compatible with the Yaesu Quadra. So I did some research today and found this nifty program call DDUtil. I set the connection port to one of the LP-Bridge virtual ports and they talk together just fine so far. There is an Other tab in DDUtil that allows you to connect a level converter from a hardware serial port to the PW1 amp. You set that port in DDUtil and check the enable box. This seems like it should work finebut alas...I don't have a PW-1 to test it with. Here's the PW1 setup info from the wiki page: IC-PW1 If you wish to have your *ICOM IC-PW1* linear amplifier follow *PowerSDR* automatically from band to band this control group is where you set it up. You will need a *CT-17* or some other *CI-V* level converter. *Note:* Even though a *CT-17* will work, it is suggested that a *Single Radio CI-V Interface*, such as the ones sold by W2ENYhttp://members.fortunecity.com/w2eny/single_civ/, be used in lieu of the *CT-17*. The reason for this is the *CT-17* re-broadcasts every message it receives back to *DDUtil* which increases the CPU overhead and cuts down the efficiency and response time in *DDUtil*. Also, the following controls will need to be set for this function. - *Port* - Select the hardware port number, from the drop-down list, you wish to use to connect your *IC-PW1* via a *CI-V* level converter. - *Enabled* - Check to enable the function. - *Disable Broadcast* - When checked will turn off the broadcast of frequency data to this port. Leave this control un-checked so frequency data will flow to the *IC-PW1*. - *CI-V Address (ra) *- This is the address of the *IC-PW1*. *DDUtil* will automatically pick this address up when the *IC-PW1* polls *DDUtil*. No action is required on the user's part and the *ra* box is not accessible and is shown for information purposes only. - *CI-V Address (ta)* - This is the hex address used by *DDUtil* during communication with the *IC-PW1*. It is suggested that the default address of 33H be used, but any other address between*00~7F* may be used. - *DTR* - Select this check box if your CI-V adapter or other equipment requires power from the *DTR* line. Check the manufactures instructions. - *RTS* - Select this check box if your CI-V adapter or other equipment requires power from the *RTS* line. Check the manufactures instructions. Additionally, The user will need to follow the *Program the CI-V address* procedure in section 3 of the *IC-PW1 Instruction Manual*. If you don't have a copy of the Instruction Manual one can be downloaded herehttp://www.icomamerica.com/en/downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?Document=35 . This is normally for an exciter, but in this case it will be used for * DDUtil*. Whenever the *IC-PW1* enters into this mode *DDUtil* will recognize the query and furnish the appropriate information back to the *IC-PW1*. This only takes a few seconds and only has to be done once, normally. See the How Tohttp://k5fr.com/ddutilwiki/index.php?title=How_To section for additional information on this function. Here's the DDUtil wiki address: http://k5fr.com/ddutilwiki/index.php?title=Main_Page 73 Greg AB7R __ 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 __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help:
Re: [Elecraft] Legendary Elecraft Service - not!
Paul, Talk to Wayne or Eric direct. I am using a lot of Icom gears and a demanding customer as well. I have no complaint about their services so far. I trust they will solve your problems. 73 Johnny VR2XMC Sent from my iPhone 4 Paul Saville elecr...@zl3in.net 於 2011年6月8日 上午6:26 寫道： Having purchased amateur radio stuff from 20 or so different suppliers, I am surprised to have to report that, after a recent order, Elecraft has become only the second with which I am not completely satisfied (the first being Andrews Communications in Sydney.) It appears the legendary Elecraft service has become a casualty of the rapid growth of the company. Perhaps I will have to revert to Icomism! Also, this list has changed over time and is now less relevant to my interests, so I intend to unsubscribe. I want to say thank you to the Ron's, Don's and others (and especially Ron ZL1TW SK) who have been immensely helpful on this list over the years. QNO 73 de ZL3IN __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] [OT] K9YC's Serial Cable question
Now that you all understand the situation between Jim and I, you have to make some choices. Do you throw away the bad equipment and get good? or do you try to make the best of what you have? Doing as Jim has suggested will reduce common mode (RF feedback) problems, but in some cases will not allow the cable to work due to bad equipment. Connecting the cable (without the shield - returns to pin 5) as I have suggested will make it work for the RS-232 connection in all cases, but in some cases does leave the hardware exposed to common mode current (and RF feedback) problems. Building the cable as Jim suggests (returns to the shell) will work with good equipment but will fail to communicate with bad equipment. The ideal is to rid yourself of the bad equipment, but unfortunately, manufacturers are not forthcoming with such information, even in their detailed specifications to allow us to make a judgement about what is good equipment and what is bad equipment using the specifications - it is an iffy task. When is the last time you have seen a line in the data for an RS-232 to USB adapter specs that indicated that Signal Ground had a connection to the DB9 shell? Breaking the blister-wrap package at your computer store to measure the resistance will be severely frowned on by store employees. As Jim pointed out, a short cable shield can be effective if grounded at one end (Faraday shield). So if you want to be safe for all cases, build the shielded cable version of the CAT 5/6 RS-232 cable, but make it only as long as necessary - it should function for the RS-232 connection in all situations. If you experience strange behavior then you can investigate your individual grounding situation with your computer/adapter/radio for the shield connections. Sorry, but I cannot address all possibilities with certainty and give a one answer fits all solution - it all depends ... but I am coming as close as I can to that one answer - use the shielded CAT 5/6 solution, and then investigate any problems in light of Jim Brown's extensive RFI documentation (we used to call these problems sneak ground paths, but Jim has provided enlightenment that is more encompassing). 73, Don W3FPR On 6/7/2011 6:13 PM, Jim Brown wrote: On 6/7/2011 2:30 PM, Don Wilhelm wrote: sense that only a few are willing to replace those computers or USB to serial adapters that are classified by Jim's definition of bad equipment with good alternatives (BTW, I agree with Jim on the bad equipment. Many DO need a signal return connection to pin 5 or they will not work. All should understand that Don and I are friends and have the greatest respect for each other's experience and advice. FWIW, I've never seen a COMPUTER or ham rig with a DB9 that doesn't have a conductive shell. The very nice Quatech PCMCIA 2-port serial adapters also have conductive shells that are properly bonded. I have one that I've used on many Field Days and other fixed and portable operations since 2003, and I recently bought two more. I have no doubt that there are cheap USB adapters floating around, but because good stuff is also cheap, it's better to toss the junk and avoid the problems. Remember also that a shield that isn't connected to circuit reference or to the shielding enclosure of the equipment doesn't work as a shield. Cables that are short as a fraction of a wavelength (1/20 wavelength or so) can have the shield bonded at only one end if it's not also carrying the signal return. This is often done with balanced audio cables as a band-aid for pin 1 problems. A 3-6 ft cable between computer and rig bonded at only one end is likely to be just fine below 10M. Another point that I hope isn't lost on folks -- improper bonding and shielding causes RF noise to ESCAPE from equipment and radiate into our receivers, just as it allows RF to get INTO equipment and cause lockups. Yet another reason that I'm so bitchy about this stuff. :) 73, Jim K9YC __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] [OT] K9YC's Serial Cable question
I was just thinking that might be a source of confusion. The supply houses I've bought components from call the plastic cover the shell. 73, Mike NF4L On 6/7/2011 7:37 PM, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote: I wonder if some people are looking at the DB plastic housing and not realizing there's a metal shell around the pins/sockets. In many cables these are left floating, sigh! Ron AC7AC __ 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 __ 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
[Elecraft] FS K2 Modules
I have the following K2 modules available for sale: KNB2 $40 shipped KSB2 $95 shipped KAT2 $140 shipped All are completely assembled, tested, working ready to install including documentation Please reply off list John __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Legendary Elecraft Service - not!
Seems to me there some on this reflector that do not know the difference between doing business with a Company and a Corporation. The guys at Elecraft know that success is a journey not a destination. Try to do the best always..you bet they do. Go visit them at their facility you see it first hand. George, W6GFLove my two K3s -- __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 and PW1 control
As I said this was not tested since I do not have a PW1. But here is what I did: In LP Bridge (I imagine other virtual port programs would work as well) I set a VCP (COM 13). In the first port field in the DDUtil ports tab I entered COM 13. DDUtil immediately picked up the K3 frequency information. I did also change the polling to 100 for smoother tracking. I cycled through all the bands and DDUtil tracked fine. I then also connected my LP-100A and Green Heron rotor controller with no problems. Since DDUtil is now reading the K3 frequency it seems logical that it will pass that information to any connected devices such as BCD control, other amplifiers and the PW1. I also had PowerSDRIF connected to LP Bridge on COM20 but that has no effect on the frequency data passed to DDUtil since it is on a different port. 73 Greg AB7R On Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 5:06 PM, Joe Subich, W4TV li...@subich.com wrote: So I did some research today and found this nifty program call DDUtil. In spite of extensive research, I have yet to see DDUTIL working with any rig other than Flex/PowerDSR. There was certainly no support for using any transceiver/protocol other than the Flex/PowerDSR when I last reviewed the on-line information. All of the available information indicated an intent by the developer to move to tighter integration with PowerDSR using the proprietary Flex protocols. While it may be possible to make DDUTIL work with PowerSDR/IF and LP-Bridge if one is using LP-Pan, it would be nice to see a fully documented, functional installation of DDUTIL *alone* with the K3 and logging software such as WriteLog, N1MM Logger, Logger32, HRD, DX4Win, DXLab Suite, etc. Note: DXLab Suite can directly control a PW-1 using the Secondary Serial Port function and the (discontinued) microHAM Band Decoder, (current) microHAM Station Master, microKEYER II, DigiKeyer II and MK2R/MK2R+ can regenerate CI-V data to control a PW-1 from the CAT data of *any* supported transceiver. 73, ... Joe, W4TV On 6/7/2011 4:21 PM, Greg wrote: At SeaPac I had a few folks ask about controlling their PW1 from the K3. As you know the K3 uses BCD data that is compatible with the Yaesu Quadra. So I did some research today and found this nifty program call DDUtil. I set the connection port to one of the LP-Bridge virtual ports and they talk together just fine so far. There is an Other tab in DDUtil that allows you to connect a level converter from a hardware serial port to the PW1 amp. You set that port in DDUtil and check the enable box. This seems like it should work finebut alas...I don't have a PW-1 to test it with. Here's the PW1 setup info from the wiki page: IC-PW1 If you wish to have your *ICOM IC-PW1* linear amplifier follow *PowerSDR* automatically from band to band this control group is where you set it up. You will need a *CT-17* or some other *CI-V* level converter. *Note:* Even though a *CT-17* will work, it is suggested that a *Single Radio CI-V Interface*, such as the ones sold by W2ENYhttp://members.fortunecity.com/w2eny/single_civ/, be used in lieu of the *CT-17*. The reason for this is the *CT-17* re-broadcasts every message it receives back to *DDUtil* which increases the CPU overhead and cuts down the efficiency and response time in *DDUtil*. Also, the following controls will need to be set for this function. - *Port* - Select the hardware port number, from the drop-down list, you wish to use to connect your *IC-PW1* via a *CI-V* level converter. - *Enabled* - Check to enable the function. - *Disable Broadcast* - When checked will turn off the broadcast of frequency data to this port. Leave this control un-checked so frequency data will flow to the *IC-PW1*. - *CI-V Address (ra) *- This is the address of the *IC-PW1*. *DDUtil* will automatically pick this address up when the *IC-PW1* polls *DDUtil*. No action is required on the user's part and the *ra* box is not accessible and is shown for information purposes only. - *CI-V Address (ta)* - This is the hex address used by *DDUtil* during communication with the *IC-PW1*. It is suggested that the default address of 33H be used, but any other address between*00~7F* may be used. - *DTR* - Select this check box if your CI-V adapter or other equipment requires power from the *DTR* line. Check the manufactures instructions. - *RTS* - Select this check box if your CI-V adapter or other equipment requires power from the *RTS* line. Check the manufactures instructions. Additionally, The user will need to follow the *Program the CI-V address* procedure in section 3 of the *IC-PW1 Instruction Manual*. If you don't have a copy of the Instruction Manual one can be downloaded here http://www.icomamerica.com/en/downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?Document=35 . This
Re: [Elecraft] K3 Hi Cut Low Cut granularity bug?
Joe, I'm aware of the SHIFT granularity being settable from 50 Hz to 10 Hz. What I was questioning is why, when this change is made, that the K3's HI CUT and LOW CUT controls are disabled. After you set CONFIG:PB CTL to 10 Hz, when you press either HI-CUT or LOW-CUT. nothing happens and you can no longer roll off either side of the passband as you could when PB CTL is configured to 50 Hz. Is this an undocumented feature? If so, I think it is a bad one. 73, Rich - K1HTV = = = -Original Message- From: Joe Subich, W4TV [mailto:li...@subich.com] Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2011 19:42 PM To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 Hi Cut Low Cut granularity bug? Also, when the SHIFT granularity (CONFIG:PB CTL) is changed from 50Hz to 10Hz, the Hi Cut and Low Cut controls do not work at all! Is this a BUG ora FEATURE? I'm presently using K3 firmware update MCU 4.36 . Feature ... as documented every since the 10 Hz steps for shift/width was first provided in beta testing. 73, ... Joe, W4TV On 6/7/2011 5:26 PM, Rich - K1HTV wrote: K3 Hi Cut Low Cut granularity bug? Lately I've been running a number of digital modes (JT65A, PSK31 RTTY) on the HF bands. The K3's APF and dual PB filters really help to copy weak RTTY signals, especially when there is QRM. When using the JT65A mode, signals even weaker than -20 dB can be copied. These very weak signals are often effected by much stronger signals within the receiver's pass band. Often, these very strong signals will act on the K3's AGC and push the weaker signals farther into the noise, making them uncopyable. I have found that adjusting the K3's 'Hi' and 'Lo' cut filters to be the quickest and easiest way to reduce the QRM from adjacent loud signals. At times an offending strong station is very close to the weak signal's frequency. The 'Hi-Cut' and 'Lo-Cut' filters must be adjusted so they attenuate the nearby loud interfering signal but not the weak signal you are attempting to copy. Unfortunately, these controls can only be adjusted in 100 Hz increments. Although the SHIFT can be set up for 10Hz or 50 Hz increments, at present the granularity of the K3's WIDTH, HI CUT, and LOW CUT controls can only be set to 100 Hz in the CW Digital modes. Also, when the SHIFT granularity (CONFIG:PB CTL) is changed from 50Hz to 10Hz, the Hi Cut and Low Cut controls do not work at all! Is this a BUG or a FEATURE? I'm presently using K3 firmware update MCU 4.36 . It would be very helpful if the 'Hi-Cut' and 'Lo-Cut' filtering could be adjusted in smaller increments than the present 100Hz. Being able to fine tune the Hi and Low cut filters would really help to quickly and easily reduce QRM that might develop either above or below the digital signal being copied. I hope that this request can be implemented in a future revision of K3 software. 73, Rich - K1HTV __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Legendary Elecraft Service - not!
It would appear that ZL3IN immediately deleted his email address after he posted his rather petulant message. It's a dead address now. Dave AB7E On 6/7/2011 3:40 PM, Wayne Burdick wrote: Paul, The buck stops with myself and Eric. If you have a complaint about our customer service, please contact us off-line and we'll deal with it immediately. I can assure you that our CS department's response time and commitment to solving problems has not wavered. __ 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
[Elecraft] K3 (actually KX3) question
If I have read correctly between the lines... K3 software should be able to control the KX3 (same command structure). My question: Has anybody ported the K3 software to Lunix (Ubuntu or SUSe)? Marotte will not do as it uses the K2 protocols. Dave G. KK7SS DN06ijRichland, WA __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 Hi Cut Low Cut granularity bug?
What I was questioning is why, when this change is made, that the K3's HI CUT and LOW CUT controls are disabled. You will need to ask Wayne the reason but I suspect it is because the Hi/Lo Cut don't match the shift/width steps when PB CTL=10 Hz. Is this an undocumented feature? No, it's documented and has been since the 10 Hz Passband shift steps was introduced on an experimental basis in MCU 3.25 (look at the FW release notes: hwfnotes.rtf). If so, I think it is a bad one. I disagree ... I regularly use shift/width for CW and FSK_D and HI/LO for SSB/DATA_A. I don't see the need for width steps less than 50 Hz for wideband modes. 73, ... Joe, W4TV On 6/7/2011 9:51 PM, Rich - K1HTV wrote: Joe, I'm aware of the SHIFT granularity being settable from 50 Hz to 10 Hz. What I was questioning is why, when this change is made, that the K3's HI CUT and LOW CUT controls are disabled. After you set CONFIG:PB CTL to 10 Hz, when you press either HI-CUT or LOW-CUT. nothing happens and you can no longer roll off either side of the passband as you could when PB CTL is configured to 50 Hz. Is this an undocumented feature? If so, I think it is a bad one. 73, Rich - K1HTV = = = -Original Message- From: Joe Subich, W4TV [mailto:li...@subich.com] Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2011 19:42 PM To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 Hi Cut Low Cut granularity bug? Also, when the SHIFT granularity (CONFIG:PB CTL) is changed from 50Hz to 10Hz, the Hi Cut and Low Cut controls do not work at all! Is this a BUG ora FEATURE? I'm presently using K3 firmware update MCU 4.36 . Feature ... as documented every since the 10 Hz steps for shift/width was first provided in beta testing. 73, ... Joe, W4TV On 6/7/2011 5:26 PM, Rich - K1HTV wrote: K3 Hi Cut Low Cut granularity bug? Lately I've been running a number of digital modes (JT65A, PSK31 RTTY) on the HF bands. The K3's APF and dual PB filters really help to copy weak RTTY signals, especially when there is QRM. When using the JT65A mode, signals even weaker than -20 dB can be copied. These very weak signals are often effected by much stronger signals within the receiver's pass band. Often, these very strong signals will act on the K3's AGC and push the weaker signals farther into the noise, making them uncopyable. I have found that adjusting the K3's 'Hi' and 'Lo' cut filters to be the quickest and easiest way to reduce the QRM from adjacent loud signals. At times an offending strong station is very close to the weak signal's frequency. The 'Hi-Cut' and 'Lo-Cut' filters must be adjusted so they attenuate the nearby loud interfering signal but not the weak signal you are attempting to copy. Unfortunately, these controls can only be adjusted in 100 Hz increments. Although the SHIFT can be set up for 10Hz or 50 Hz increments, at present the granularity of the K3's WIDTH, HI CUT, and LOW CUT controls can only be set to 100 Hz in the CW Digital modes. Also, when the SHIFT granularity (CONFIG:PB CTL) is changed from 50Hz to 10Hz, the Hi Cut and Low Cut controls do not work at all! Is this a BUG or a FEATURE? I'm presently using K3 firmware update MCU 4.36 . It would be very helpful if the 'Hi-Cut' and 'Lo-Cut' filtering could be adjusted in smaller increments than the present 100Hz. Being able to fine tune the Hi and Low cut filters would really help to quickly and easily reduce QRM that might develop either above or below the digital signal being copied. I hope that this request can be implemented in a future revision of K3 software. 73, Rich - K1HTV __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 Hi Cut Low Cut granularity bug?
Providing HI CUT and LO CUT when SHIFT is configured for 10 Hz increments would require a substantial rewrite to the K3 firmware. If you'd like to use LO and HI CUT, for now you'll need to use 50-Hz steps. 73, Wayne N6KR On Jun 7, 2011, at 6:51 PM, Rich - K1HTV wrote: Joe, I'm aware of the SHIFT granularity being settable from 50 Hz to 10 Hz. What I was questioning is why, when this change is made, that the K3's HI CUT and LOW CUT controls are disabled. After you set CONFIG:PB CTL to 10 Hz, when you press either HI-CUT or LOW-CUT. nothing happens and you can no longer roll off either side of the passband as you could when PB CTL is configured to 50 Hz. Is this an undocumented feature? If so, I think it is a bad one. 73, Rich - K1HTV = = = -Original Message- From: Joe Subich, W4TV [mailto:li...@subich.com] Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2011 19:42 PM To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 Hi Cut Low Cut granularity bug? Also, when the SHIFT granularity (CONFIG:PB CTL) is changed from 50Hz to 10Hz, the Hi Cut and Low Cut controls do not work at all! Is this a BUG ora FEATURE? I'm presently using K3 firmware update MCU 4.36 . Feature ... as documented every since the 10 Hz steps for shift/ width was first provided in beta testing. 73, ... Joe, W4TV On 6/7/2011 5:26 PM, Rich - K1HTV wrote: K3 Hi Cut Low Cut granularity bug? Lately I've been running a number of digital modes (JT65A, PSK31 RTTY) on the HF bands. The K3's APF and dual PB filters really help to copy weak RTTY signals, especially when there is QRM. When using the JT65A mode, signals even weaker than -20 dB can be copied. These very weak signals are often effected by much stronger signals within the receiver's pass band. Often, these very strong signals will act on the K3's AGC and push the weaker signals farther into the noise, making them uncopyable. I have found that adjusting the K3's 'Hi' and 'Lo' cut filters to be the quickest and easiest way to reduce the QRM from adjacent loud signals. At times an offending strong station is very close to the weak signal's frequency. The 'Hi-Cut' and 'Lo-Cut' filters must be adjusted so they attenuate the nearby loud interfering signal but not the weak signal you are attempting to copy. Unfortunately, these controls can only be adjusted in 100 Hz increments. Although the SHIFT can be set up for 10Hz or 50 Hz increments, at present the granularity of the K3's WIDTH, HI CUT, and LOW CUT controls can only be set to 100 Hz in the CW Digital modes. Also, when the SHIFT granularity (CONFIG:PB CTL) is changed from 50Hz to 10Hz, the Hi Cut and Low Cut controls do not work at all! Is this a BUG or a FEATURE? I'm presently using K3 firmware update MCU 4.36 . It would be very helpful if the 'Hi-Cut' and 'Lo-Cut' filtering could be adjusted in smaller increments than the present 100Hz. Being able to fine tune the Hi and Low cut filters would really help to quickly and easily reduce QRM that might develop either above or below the digital signal being copied. I hope that this request can be implemented in a future revision of K3 software. 73, Rich - K1HTV __ 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 __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 Hi Cut Low Cut granularity bug?
It's not a bug, it's a documented limitation. Actually, it can be a feature: if it's set to 10 Hz and you tap one of the knobs, it displays the shift or the width without changing the control's function! On 6/7/2011 6:51 PM, Rich - K1HTV wrote: Joe, I'm aware of the SHIFT granularity being settable from 50 Hz to 10 Hz. What I was questioning is why, when this change is made, that the K3's HI CUT and LOW CUT controls are disabled. After you set CONFIG:PB CTL to 10 Hz, when you press either HI-CUT or LOW-CUT. nothing happens and you can no longer roll off either side of the passband as you could when PB CTL is configured to 50 Hz. Is this an undocumented feature? If so, I think it is a bad one. 73, Rich - K1HTV = = = -Original Message- From: Joe Subich, W4TV [mailto:li...@subich.com] Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2011 19:42 PM To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 Hi Cut Low Cut granularity bug? Also, when the SHIFT granularity (CONFIG:PB CTL) is changed from 50Hz to 10Hz, the Hi Cut and Low Cut controls do not work at all! Is this a BUG ora FEATURE? I'm presently using K3 firmware update MCU 4.36 . Feature ... as documented every since the 10 Hz steps for shift/width was first provided in beta testing. 73, ... Joe, W4TV -- Vic, K2VCO Fresno CA http://www.qsl.net/k2vco/ __ 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
[Elecraft] KX1 For sale Relist
Hi all, I will be moving shortly and have to trim down my radio gear.. For sale is my KX1 in a Pelican 1060 case, includes: KX1 With KXAT1 (Tuner, Internal), KXB30/80 (30/80m + wide band rcv), KXPD1 Paddle, CW Spot Indicator (N0SS). Two KX1 Nifty Quick-Reference Guides Note: 30/80 module CW Spot installed by Don, W3FPR Case also includes: BNC/UHF female Adapter, BNC/Banana Plug (F) Adapter and BNC to Dual Banana Plug adapter. $450, including freight, CONUS Pictures available upon request. Please contact me off List at: s...@leben.commailto:s...@leben.com 281-251-9299 Sid Leben KC2EE __ 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
[Elecraft] [OT] Drain Wire on CAT6 RFI resistant cable?
Thanks to Don and Jim for their input on building a RFI resistant control cable. I've been informed by another poster that it's recommended to use stranded CAT5 or 6 verses solid wire. The poster believes stranded wire would be more resistant to flexing, plugging, unplugging, etc. than solid wire. One last question on this issue: I've come across some nice (stranded) CAT6 cable that has a shield and a drain wire. I'll have a decision to make on what to do with the shield, but is there a consensus (or not) on what to do with the drain wire? 73 N5BCN - Brian - K2 #6800 KPA100/KAT100-2, KSB2, KAT2, KIO2, K160RX, KNB2, KAF2, LP-PAN/K2 w/ Pre-amp, SignaLink USB -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/OT-Drain-Wire-on-CAT6-RFI-resistant-cable-tp6452241p6452241.html Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com. __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] [OT] Drain Wire on CAT6 RFI resistant cable?
When I was doing that kind of work the premises wiring was done with solid but all the jumpers and anything that was plugged and unplugged regularly was stranded. The solid was more prone to breaking at the plug than the stranded was. Our practice was to have the return of a circuit paired with the signal. For ordinary RS-232 Tx would be on one pair and Rx on another. the second wire in each pair would be connected to signal ground. Yes, that meant that there were multiple wires running signal ground. For things like RS-422 that were balanced, both the + and - were always in the same pair. That was our plant policy. Jim K9YC can tell us if it was a good policy. He knows what is best more than I do. David K0LUM At 8:31 PM -0700 6/7/11, Brian - N5BCN wrote: Thanks to Don and Jim for their input on building a RFI resistant control cable. I've been informed by another poster that it's recommended to use stranded CAT5 or 6 verses solid wire. The poster believes stranded wire would be more resistant to flexing, plugging, unplugging, etc. than solid wire. One last question on this issue: I've come across some nice (stranded) CAT6 cable that has a shield and a drain wire. I'll have a decision to make on what to do with the shield, but is there a consensus (or not) on what to do with the drain wire? 73 N5BCN - Brian __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] 144 Transverter Wish List?
George, A VHF receiver with a broad front-end opens the door to inter-mod from Paging transmitters and other local VHF services. I would rather have a ham-band only unit and then add an inexpensive portable scanner if you need the additional frequency coverage. Just my opinion... 73, Bill - K6WLM If/When a 144 Transverter is in the design stage could you look into giving it a BroadBand receive range? On the upper end I would like to see it go to the National Weather Service at 165.xxx mhz, and on the lower end I would like to get to the NOAA LEO sat's at 137.xxx (Wide Band FM if you please). __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] [OT] Drain Wire on CAT6 RFI resistant cable?
Brian, Treat the drain wire the same as the shield. It is just an extension of the shield. 73, Don W3FPR On 6/7/2011 11:31 PM, Brian - N5BCN wrote: Thanks to Don and Jim for their input on building a RFI resistant control cable. I've been informed by another poster that it's recommended to use stranded CAT5 or 6 verses solid wire. The poster believes stranded wire would be more resistant to flexing, plugging, unplugging, etc. than solid wire. One last question on this issue: I've come across some nice (stranded) CAT6 cable that has a shield and a drain wire. I'll have a decision to make on what to do with the shield, but is there a consensus (or not) on what to do with the drain wire? 73 N5BCN - Brian - K2 #6800 KPA100/KAT100-2, KSB2, KAT2, KIO2, K160RX, KNB2, KAF2, LP-PAN/K2 w/ Pre-amp, SignaLink USB -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/OT-Drain-Wire-on-CAT6-RFI-resistant-cable-tp6452241p6452241.html Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com. __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Legendary Elecraft Service - not!
That appears to be so - my private email to him bounced. As a result, I move him to my personal troll category. 73, Don W3FPR On 6/7/2011 9:52 PM, David Gilbert wrote: It would appear that ZL3IN immediately deleted his email address after he posted his rather petulant message. It's a dead address now. Dave AB7E __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K2 off frequency
Hello Don Thanks for the replay and all the useful info’s. It was quite easy to find another counter (don’t know how calibrated) and now the difference is around 40Hz which is a great improvement from 300Hz. Anyway I will try to use the RWM station signal also. Thank you everyone for your time and advices. It is my first Elecraft, and I am really happy with the rig. Dave, Vincent, Dave thanks for additional info about RWM and calibration. Best wishes! 73! Adi Yo2liw On Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 7:05 PM, Don Wilhelm w3...@embarqmail.com wrote: Dave and all, Actually the frequency of the station makes no difference at all. The secret is that the difference between the VFO and BFO frequencies (in LSB or USB only) is equal to the frequency of the station you are tuned to. With 10 (or 15 MHz) WWV, the subtraction is easy since all but the first digits of the station frequency are zeros, so all the lower order digits will match. When using RWM or some other station that transmits on a .00 frequency, that match will only occur in the digits after the decimal - one should do the subtraction as a confirmation that there is not a 1 kHz error. 73, Don W3FPR On 6/7/2011 11:41 AM, Dave Sergeant wrote: But bear in mind this is at 9996kHz, 4 kHz away from 10MHz. I thought the way the K2 PLL worked meant you had to calibrate at exactly 10MHz, so calibrating against RWM may not give correct tracking on all frequencies. It also transmits a pure carrier only for a few minutes each hour, making it hard to use. It is a pity that WWV is very rarely at a strong enough signal in Europe to be used as a calibration reference and there is currently no other one to use. 73 Dave G3YMC __ 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 -- == Adrian Toplician 0721 367 850 Timisoara YO2LIW __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 Hi Cut Low Cut granularity bug?
I don't see this as a limitation because I only use HI CUT and LO CUT in SSB where 50 Hz steps is just fine. For CW and RTTY, the 10 Hz steps of SHIFT and WIDTH are great. Ed - W0YK N6KR wrote: Providing HI CUT and LO CUT when SHIFT is configured for 10 Hz increments would require a substantial rewrite to the K3 firmware. If you'd like to use LO and HI CUT, for now you'll need to use 50-Hz steps. __ 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
[Elecraft] OT ZL3IN
Hmmm, his QRZ details may be enlightening...:-) 73's Gary - now back to the DX -- VK4FD - Motorhome Mobile Elecraft Equipment K3 #679, KPA-500 #018 Living the dream!!! __ 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
