[Elecraft] K3IOB to P3 cable pinout (E980287)

[Dick Green WC1M]

Hi all,

I just bought an upgraded K3 that has a KIO3B board. It didn’t come with the 
E980287 cable that connects the KIO3B RJ45 jack to a P3. I have all the parts 
and tools to make such a cable, but want to make sure I have the pinout 
correct. The only info I found for that is on the schematic for the KIO3B 
Digital I/O Module. Here’s what I think the pinout should be:

RJ45   9-pin RS232 female (1, 6, 8 N.C.)
1N.C.
2TXD   2 (RXD)
3N.C.
4GND  5 (GND)
5RXD   3 (TXD)
6N.C.
7DTR4 (DTR)
8RTS 7 (RTS)

The main thing I want to be sure about is the TXD/RXD connections – i.e., that 
they should be crossed over, like a null modem cable.)

Any help will be appreciated!

73, Dick WC1M

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Re: [Elecraft] OT - backup software

[Dick Green WC1M]

I use EaseUS. It's a complete package with options for scheduled full backup, 
incremental backups, continuous backup, disk image, etc. Also can be used to 
clone disks. 

Acronis is a very popular backup package for Windows. I used to use it but had 
several mishaps, including not being able to read old backups. Haven't tried it 
in a long time.

I have EaseUS setup to do a full backup on each disk in my system on the first 
day of the month, and incremental backups on each disk once a day. The backups 
are written to a hard drive in a USB dock. I have a set of five of these disks 
and rotate to the next drive after the last incremental backup of the month. 
Whenever I visit my safe deposit box, I put one of the disks in the box and 
retrieve the one that I put in the box last time. That way, I have an offsite 
backup in case of disaster. It might be a little old, but better than nothing.

Further, I have Windows 10 on and SSD and all of my critical data on a separate 
SSD, including work files, spreadsheets, Quicken data, all my ham radio data 
(e.g., contest logs), and so forth. This data is continuously copied to the 
cloud and synced with all my devices so that I have multiple copies of it, 
including the versions in the hard drive backup rotation. There are many cloud 
services that can be used for this, but I use Microsoft OneDrive because I get 
1 TB of storage free with my subscription to Office 365. It helps to have very 
high speed internet with fast upload speed (75/15 here, but usually it's more 
like 90/20.)

When apps allow it, I configure them to keep user-specific data on my user data 
drive. I also try to get them to save their configuration data to my data 
drive. Unfortunately, some apps don't let you change their data and/or 
configuration locations. These days it's often in C:\Users\\AppData. I have to be content with that data being backed up to local hard 
drives only.

I've also configured Windows to do a scheduled System Restore Point each day, 
but it doesn't always work. Typically it's done when updates are applied and 
sometimes when apps are installed. When I remember, I do one manually. These 
restore points can be crucial if your system gets messed up by a hardware 
failure or problem with a Windows update.

As you can tell, I'm a proponent of belt-and-suspenders backups. I've been 
burned many times, going back as far as 1972. First casualty was a term paper, 
back when most college students used typewriters and virtually no one would 
have tried to type a paper into a computer. The professor didn't believe me 
when I told him that a poor design in the syntax of the user interface caused 
me to accidentally erase the paper. He looked at me like I'd told him my dog 
ate my homework.

73, Dick WC1M

-Original Message-
From: John Saxon  
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2018 9:05 PM
To: Elecraft Reflector 
Subject: [Elecraft] OT - backup software

I am not happy with my current backup software package.  Any recommendations on 
backup software?  Like it to be free, but not necessary.
73,JohnK5ENQ


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Re: [Elecraft] W2 wattmeter maximum Cat5 cable length

[Dick Green WC1M]

Thanks. First real info I've gotten. I said Cat5 because the documentation 
mentions it and I believe it says you can use a standard Ethernet cable.

I haven't taken a close look at the coupler circuitry. If it's like most remote 
couplers I've seen, a too-long cable can cause a drop in the DC voltages that 
carry the forward and reflected power signals. If the coupler does a conversion 
to digital, then the cable length wouldn't be an issue. But that sounds pretty 
fancy!

73, Dick WC1M

-Original Message-
From: Jeff KC9WSJ  
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2018 12:47 PM
To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] W2 wattmeter maximum Cat5 cable length

the standard cable is not Cat5, it's just a ribbon cable with RJ45's (I
think?) at each end.
Cat5 should work, though, and I'd be surprised if anything less than ~50ft+ 
would be an issue.

--
Jeff KC9WSJ 

On Mon, 2018-07-09 at 23:51 -0400, Dick Green wrote:
> The W2 wattmeter comes with a 5-foot Cat5 cable to connect the coupler 
> to the display unit. I need to use a longer cable, maybe 10-15 feet. 
> I’ve searched the reflector archives and web for any information about 
> the max
> Cat5 cable length but haven’t found any.
> 
> Does anyone know? Does the calibration routine in the W2 Utility 
> compensate for different cable lengths?
> 
> 73, Dick WC1M


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Re: [Elecraft] K3 -> Very Early Acom 2000A

[Dick Green WC1M]

Hi Will,

I have an early 2000A driven by a K3. I'm pretty sure you can just connect the 
Key Out jack on the K3 to the Key In jack on the 2000A, and the hard-coded 
transmit delay in the K3 (5ms?) will be adequate for the vacuum relay in the 
2000A to switch. 

However, if you want to be 100% safe, or if you get key sequencing faults from 
the 2000A, you can use the 2000A key loop. This requires connecting the 2000A 
Key Out jack to the K3 TX INH pin (pin 7) on the Acc jack. Since the 2000A 
pulls Key Out low when it's OK to transmit, you need to pull pin 7 on the K3 
ACC jack  up to 5VDC (max) with a 10K resistor. To do that, you'll have to run 
a line over to the K3 12VDC jack and use a resistor divider or a transistor 
circuit to drop it down to 5VDC (the latter is how I did it.)

I've seen a diagram where someone got the 5VDC pullup voltage by shorting pin 1 
to pin 7 on the Acc jack. Pin 1 is the FSK input, which is pulled up to 5VDC. I 
don't know if this works, but it's simpler than what I described above. I'm 
pretty sure it means you can't use the FSK input.

Once you get the hardware connected, go into Config:TX INH and set INH = Hi. 
You'll need to be in tech mode to do this.
 
Hope this helps.

73. Dick WC1M


-Original Message-
From: William Liporace  
Sent: Sunday, July 8, 2018 2:13 PM
To: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Elecraft] K3 -> Very Early Acom 2000A

Hi Folks,
I am looking for instructions of tips on how to hook up the very early Acom 
2000A amps to my K3. Any tips or tricks would be great!!

TNX Will WC2L

--
William Liporace WC2L
http://www.wc2l.com or http://dxc.wc2l.com AR-Cluster Node  telnet dxc.wc2l.com 
or 144.93 MHz w...@wc2l.com



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Re: [Elecraft] UPS Practice? was:Re: KPA1500 Caution

[Dick Green WC1M]

USPS has a similar free service, called Informed Delivery. It also lets you see 
photos of mail pieces (non-packages) heading your way. Fedex has something 
similar as well. One thing that's great about these services is they tell you 
what's coming to your address even if you don't have a tracking number. It's 
definitely worth signing up for these free accounts. You also get the ability 
to prepay for shipping and print labels. That saves time at the P.O. and 
sometimes I can get UPS or Fedex to pick up the package for fee when they're 
delivering one.

I agree that any one of these services can and will damage goods that are not 
packed well. That's on the shipper. Most of the horror stories I've heard were 
due to the shipper not packing the goods adequately (though sometimes that can 
be undone on an international shipment by customs inspectors.) That said, I've 
seen some instances where the box itself was penetrated or crushed, which is on 
the carrier.

I believe custom foam inserts and double-boxing are the best way to protect 
electronic equipment, though double boxing almost always involves the dreaded 
peanuts.

I live at the end of an 1100' gravel driveway, so the carriers can leave 
packages on the front porch with little or no danger that they'll be stolen. 
Even so, for something as expensive as a KPA1500 I would opt for a signature 
being required. I suspect that if you don't do  that you could have trouble 
collecting the full insurance. Also, several times UPS has delivered our 
packages to the wrong address. We were able to get them back, but that might 
not be the case with something really expensive.

Sometimes a substitute driver will refuse to venture down our driveway for fear 
of not being able to turn around (the turn-around isn't visible from the road) 
or fear of getting stuck in snow, ice or mud. So they leave the package in the 
mailbox (which I believe is illegal) or they put it in a plastic bag tied to 
the mailbox post. The mailbox is right on the highway in front of our driveway, 
so the package could be stolen easily. A couple of times they just dumped the 
box in the snow at head of the driveway. I usually call to let UPS know so they 
can tell the drivers not to do that. Again, requiring a signature gets around 
that problem but also requires that we hang around all day. I recently had a 
signature-required shipment where the estimated delivery times were off by many 
hours so I missed it twice and had to pick it up at the UPS depot 20 minutes 
away.

My least favorite delivery method is SurePost. UPS picks up the package, sends 
it to your region, then hands it off to USPS for the last part of the trip. 
That always adds at least one day, if not several days.

All this said, it amazes me how much stuff we're buying online these days and 
how cheap the shipping has become.

73, Dick WC1M

-Original Message-
From: j...@kk9a.com  
Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2018 12:37 PM
To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Elecraft] UPS Practice? was:Re: KPA1500 Caution

Sign up for UPS My Choice
https://www.ups.com/mobile/deliveryplanner?loc=en_US and you will be aware of 
every package coming to your residence. You can redirect packages if they 
require a signature and you will not be home.

John KK9A


N4ZR wrote:

Yes, I know. The problem is that they did not warn me when tracking the package 
that I would have to be there, and despite claiming they would do so, their web 
site also gave me no inkling of when during the day I could expect delivery. 
For a company that designs its deliveryroutes to minimize left turns, you'd 
think this would be child's play.

73, Pete N4ZR
Check out the Reverse Beacon Network
at , now
spotting RTTY activity worldwide.
For spots, please use your favorite
"retail" DX cluster.




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Re: [Elecraft] K-Pod

[Dick Green WC1M]

I have a couple of theories on this. 

One is that a lot of owners will have already filled macros 1-8 for use with
the K3 front panel, so the K-Pod tap keys should begin with macro 9. 

The other theory is that the functions you're likely to want to initiate on
the K-Pod should be hold-type to avoid accidentally triggering a macro when
tuning.

My guess is that it was probably the first theory. The second is true for
me, but I'm not sure it's true for others.

73, Dick WC1M

-Original Message-
From: Ron D'Eau Claire [mailto:r...@cobi.biz] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2016 4:51 PM
To: 'Irwin Darack' ; elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K-Pod

It is correct. Hold F1 through F8 launches the macros in locations 1 through
8 while tapping F1 through F8 launches the macros in locations 9 through 16.

(Don't ask me why. I'm just the messenger ;-)

73 Ron AC7AC

-Original Message-
From: Elecraft [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Irwin
Darack
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2016 11:47 AM
To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Elecraft] K-Pod

My K-Pod arrived on Monday and I am currently working on building Macros.

When I tap the F1 function key on the K-Pod it reads macro 09 on the K3S;
when I hold the F1 key, it reads macro 01 on the K3S. All the the function
keys seem to behaving the same. For example, tapping F4 = macro 12, while
holding F4 = macro 04.

When I write a macro using either SWT (tap function) or SWH (hold function)
for the K3S, and write to the K3S using the K3 Utility, the macro runs
correctly on the K3S.

Its just the Tap and Hold on the K-Pod seem to be reversed?  Should tapping
the F1 key on the K-Pod = macro 01 on the K3S, etc? Or was this how it was
designed? It seems to reversed from how the keys on the K3S and P3 behave.

Thanks, Irwin KD3TB



--
Irwin KD3TB
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Re: [Elecraft] Wire labeling - slightly OT

[Dick Green WC1M]

Brother has a special tape for use with cables. Comes in a variety of
widths. It's flexible so it can be wrapped around cable and doesn't
eventually peel off like the stock tape. For small gauge cables it can be
formed into a flag.

73, Dick WC1M

> -Original Message-
> From: Don Kiser [mailto:ac...@frontier.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2015 8:14 PM
> To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Wire labeling - slightly OT
> 
> We use a Brady labeler for wires. Labels Chemical / oil resistant and it
works
> well. Not sure what the unit costs. Buts it's made for this. Granger has a
good
> supply.
> 
> I use a brother labeler at home. It's ok for COAX but not great for
smaller gauge.
> It's a bit large for CAT5.
> 
> For large cables I've seen people use different patterns and colors of
electrical
> tape.
> 
> 73
> Don AC2EV
> 
> 
> > On Sep 8, 2015, at 20:01, elecraft-requ...@mailman.qth.net wrote:
> >
> > [Elecraft] Wire labeling - slightly OT


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Re: [Elecraft] SMD soldering help

[Dick Green WC1M]

Solder paste holds the part in place:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M1RC0YY?psc=1redirect=trueref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

Then an inexpensive hot air rework station completes the job: 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0055B6NGE/ref=sr_ph?ie=UTF8qid=1436374340sr=1keywords=hot+air+rework

The hot air rework station is best for desoldering parts, too.

73, Dick WC1M

 -Original Message-
 From: P.J.Hicks [mailto:hickspj...@comcast.net]
 Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2015 7:34 PM
 To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
 Subject: [Elecraft] SMD soldering help
 
 I have done a bit  of 0603/4 but mostly 0805 size. What works for me is a 
 small
 helper I made. Actually the first of two; the second is much more elaborate.
 
 I do my boards flat/horizontal in a holding fixture so it doesn't move around.
 
 Then I made a 'T' shaped wire 'holder' that rests on the 'T' crossbar. The 
 leg of
 the 'T' is long enough to bend into a 'C' as big as needed to reach the part. 
 The
 end of the leg is sharpened to a small rounded point about 2/3 the width of 
 the
 SMT or 0.02 and rounded with emery paper. A weight is added to the leg an 
 inch
 or so above the point. In use I place the part with tweezers or other tool 
 and then
 set the holder tool working end on top so it holds the SMT part in place. 
 Careful
 use of the solder pencil tip does the trick. Takes a bit of practice but 
 worked well
 for me. My newer design works better but is, as I say, more complicated to 
 build
 but as simple to use. Same principle though.
 
 PJH, N7PXY


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Re: [Elecraft] OT: New soldering station needed

[Dick Green WC1M]

The FX-951 features look great and I'm considering one to replace my old
Weller EC2001 with EC1201A pencil. Tips are hard to find for that model
these days.

What FX-951 tips work well for SMD parts? Mostly I solder/desolder
components with leads, but occasionally I need to solder or desolder SMD
chips and flat packs (I think that's the name for discreet components.) In
addition to the Weller EC2001/ EC1201A, I have a Hakko 808 desolder gun. I
can sort of muddle my way through with one of those and manual tweezers, and
have used ChipQuik to with some success to desolder SMD ICs, but the tips I
have for the EC1201A aren't small enough and the desolder gun tip is
sometimes too big or overkill for SMD chips with a lot of leads.

It looks like Hakko doesn't offer desolder tweezers for the FX-951, but I
don't know if desolder tweezers would really improve things or be worth it
for my occasional SMD requirements. There's a desolder tweezer for the
FX-888D, but I prefer the features of the FX-951.

73, Dick WC1M

 -Original Message-
 From: Mark Goldberg [mailto:marklgoldb...@gmail.com]
 Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 11:33 AM
 To: Cady, Fred
 Cc: Elecraft Mailing List
 Subject: Re: [Elecraft] OT: New soldering station needed
 
 I have a Hakko FX-888, works great, looks like a kids toy. I have a
variety of tips,
 large screwdriver to very small conical and have done everything from AWG4
 lugs to SOT23 SMTs, leaded and lead free solder. Temp adjustable and very
 good heat and recovery. I have also used a Metcal and like the Hakka just
as
 much. Lots of tips available.
 
 Mark
 W7MLG
  On Mar 24, 2014 3:44 PM, Cady, Fred fc...@ece.montana.edu wrote:
 
  Hi all,
  My venerable and aged Weller EC2000 solder station has given up the
ghost.
   Anybody have any suggestions of a good replacement - temperature
  controlled 300 - 800 degrees or so, digital display, a range of tips.
  I have done, but don't do as a practice, surface mount projects.
  Thoughts? Your favorites?
  Thanks and 73,
  Fred KE7X
 
 
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  list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to
  marklgoldb...@gmail.com
 


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Re: [Elecraft] Footswitch Connection on K3

[Dick Green WC1M]

Linemaster is my favorite brand of footswitch. Generally rugged and good 
quality. Here are a couple sold on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Linemaster-T-91-S-Treadlite-Electrical-Momentary/dp/B002P4XREA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8qid=1363820645sr=8-1keywords=linemaster\

http://www.amazon.com/Linemaster-Clipper-Switch-Electrical-Momentary/dp/B002P55Y36/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8qid=1363820815sr=8-3keywords=linemaster

The Clipper is overkill, but really nice. I have a dual-pedal model.

But look for these on ebay first. You should be able to find a used Linemaster 
footswitches for much less than the new price. I saw several Clippers for $20 
or less.

As you've been told, if the mic doesn't have a PTT switch, you should be able 
to plug the footswitch into the rear-panel PTT jack. That's what I do. If the 
mic has a PTT switch, hopefully it only switches PTT and not the mic.

73, Dick WC1M

 -Original Message-
 From: pastor...@verizon.net [mailto:pastor...@verizon.net]
 Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2013 1:30 PM
 To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
 Subject: [Elecraft] Footswitch Connection on K3
 
 Good Afternoon once again. I do know that the footswitch is connected to
 the PTT In on the back of the K3.  But can I still have the microphone
 connected in the front jack and use the footswitch to key the tranmitter
 and talk through the microphone? Sorry for all the dumb questions.  Mark
 KB3Z


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Re: [Elecraft] K3 and Alpha 87A SWR

[Dick Green WC1M]

I've been running a K3 into an Alpha 87A for years, and SWR is just fine.
The coax between the K3 and amp happens to be 15-20 feet, but that length is
just what was necessary for the run between the shack and an equipment
closet in the basement where the amp is located. I have found in the past,
however, that it's best if the coax is at least 6' long, as recommended by
Alpha.

High input SWR on some bands most likely means something is wrong in the
input circuit, such as bad contacts on the wafer switch, burned out
resistors or inductors, etc. You can also get high SWR if the contacts on
the large band switch aren't properly aligned. The alignment is set by the
factory and stored in program memory. There's a simple procedure for
re-aligning the band switch and storing the new stepper motor position in
memory.

I suggest you contact RF Concepts and ask them for help.

73, Dick WC1M

 -Original Message-
 From: Merv Schweigert [mailto:k...@flex.com]
 Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2012 8:10 PM
 To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
 Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 and Alpha 87A SWR
 
 I use a 99 with the K3 and any length coax works just fine,  it there is
 SWR on the
 line there is a problem someplace,   have never had to cut a coax to any
 particular
 length.
 If theres SWR its either a ground differential problem between the amp
 and radio chassis or the tuned input is not correct,  or the amps input
 resistor has been cooked.
 Merv K9FD/KH6
  On Aug 22, 2012, at 1:01 PM, Jim Brownj...@audiosystemsgroup.com
 wrote:
 
 
  You
  might try engaging the auto tuner in the K3 if you have one.
 
  Be aware that both the Alpha 87A and 99 manuals tell you NEVER use an
 automatic antenna tuner into or through the [87A or 99].  This will
 cause damage to the Input Wattmeter  Input Relay.
 
  It's largely because of this prohibition that I don't even have a KAT3
 in my K3.
 
  Bud, W2RU
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  .
 
 
 


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Re: [Elecraft] K3 - P3 or LP-PAN comparison

[Dick Green WC1M]

Some comments that may be helpful for both threads about the P3:

I have two K3s in an SO2R contest configuration. The K3 I use mostly for
running has an LP-Pan and NaP3. I just installed the pre-amp option in my
LP-PAN, and it works well, but I haven't done a contest with it yet. The run
K3 also has a SubRX that I use almost exclusively for Diversity reception.
The radio I use mostly for SP has a P3 (no SVGA card) and no SubRX.

Both panadapter solutions work well, but I have a preference for the P3,
especially for SP. The main reason is that the P3 display seems sharper and
more responsive to me. This will sound odd, but the signals on LP-PAN/NaP3
seem slightly fat and slow, and the screen display seems more chaotic
that it does on the P3. It could be that the display is just that much
bigger, but I don't know. I've not been able to make the NaP3 display look
as good or respond as well as the P3 display.

The main reason I use LP-PAN/NaP3 on the run radio is to check the band
activity (i.e., is the band open enough to run?) I've tried to use it to
find an empty space to run, but haven't had a lot of success with that. For
some reason, that's easier to do with the P3. 

Another issue is screen real-estate. I happen to have a 24 main monitor
that I use for the contest logger, a 20 second monitor that I use for NaP3
and a bunch of other utility programs and a 7 touch screen I use for a
program I wrote called AntennaMaster that I use to select antennas, tune
SteppIRs, tune my Acom amp, etc. If you have just one monitor, it's hard to
find enough room on it for NaP3 and all the other things you might want to
see during a contest.

As for CPU usage, when I had a core2-Duo system, LP-PAN/PowerSDR-IF used a
lot of CPU and the system fans would be humping it all contest. I worried
about the heat stress that was putting on the system, especially the CPU.
Now I have an i7-based system with an NVIDIA 570 graphics card and the CPU
usage is much lower. CPU usage with LP-PAN/NaP3 is so low I barely notice
that the fans are running a little faster. FWIW, I use LP-Bridge with
Writelog and NaP3, and it works flawlessly.

All in all, if the P3 was a little less expensive, I would use one on the
run radio instead of LP-PAN/NaP3 (anybody want to sell me a used P3?) 

Now, I hasten to add that there are some advantages to the LP-PAN/NaP3 or
LP-PAN/PowerSDR-IF solutions. For one thing, it can provide a sub receiver
if you don't have one. Second, it can produce excellent filtering and audio
for AM B/C stations without having to buy a 6 KHz filter for the K3. For
another thing, PowerSDR-IF has some monitor modes that transform it into a
very useful receive monitor scope (like being able to see the other
station's transmit envelope.) LP-PAN is also a lot cheaper than a P3. Even
if I had a P3 for the run K3, I wouldn't sell my LP-PAN. I would hook them
up together (more feasible with the $25 LP-PAN pre-amp option installed
because the pre-amp helps to compensate for the 3dB IF splitter loss in the
P3.)

On the SubRX, whether money should be spent on that over a P3 depends very
much on what you do with the radio. I would probably go for the sub because
it makes the K3 a much more powerful radio. If you're a DX-er, it's
indispensable because it allows dual-watch. If you're a contester with the
right kind of antennas (ideally, opposite polarity), Diversity reception can
be an unbelievable upgrade to your station -- it was for mine. That said, I
use a full-size 2-el 40m beam at 110' and a full-size 40m 4-square with 60
radials per element. That combo had better be good! As has been noted,
Diversity does require purchasing identical filters for all bandwidths with
which you want to do Diversity reception. If you aren't a DX-er or a serious
contester, then a sub might be less important and a P3 might make more sense
for the dollars you have to spend.

Hope this is helpful.

73, Dick WC1M

 -Original Message-
 From: Wes Stewart [mailto:n...@yahoo.com]
 Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2012 11:59 AM
 To: Elecraft; Robert G. Strickland
 Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 - P3 or LP-PAN comparison
 
 I use an SDR-IQ on the i-f output of my K3.  I use LP-Bridge to share
 data between the K3, SpectraVue, DXBase logging and/or N1MM.
 
 Additionally, with a laptop/SDR-IQ combination I have a nice little
 standalone receiver for travel use, although the sensitivity is poor
 without something like an active antenna.
 
 Disclaimer: I once owned an LP-PAN but sold it, I've never owned a P3
 although I played with a preproduction one once.
 
 Wes Stewart N7WS
 
 --- On Mon, 7/2/12, Robert G. Strickland rc...@verizon.net wrote:
 
 
 
 In another post I ask about sub-receiver versus panadapter. Here, a
 question about type of panadapter. My station occupies a very small
 space, and adding the P3 would strain the real estate. So, I've been
 looking at other panadapter possibilities that use the computer screen
 for display. What sort of useful comparisons can 

Re: [Elecraft] diversity receive antennas

[Dick Green WC1M]

I use diversity primarily on 40m in contests. I have the transmit antenna, a
2-el beam at 110', in my left ear and a 4-square on the AUX port in my right
ear. The antennas are separated by about 320 feet. 

I couldn't testify as to whether there's any diversity gain, but there's no
question that the setup is extremely effective when there's QSB on the band.
It's also quite helpful when there's noise, like static crashes, that might
be picked up more by one of the antennas than the other. A surprising thing
I've learned is that sometimes signals are louder on the 4-square that I
would have expected. Normally, when I switch back and forth in
non-diversity, the beam is almost always considerably louder. But when
listening in diversity, the 4-square is sometimes as loud as, or louder
than, the beam. That's the magic of arrival angles and one reason why stacks
are great to have!

Both of the antennas have 20-25 dB F/B, so another bonus to this
configuration is that if I hear a station calling from the direction
opposite to where I'm working, I can quickly switching the 4-square to that
direction -- even while transmitting.

But Guy really hit the nail on the head. The most remarkable effect is how
the spatial positioning of signals makes copy much easier, especially in
large pileups where many stations may be close in frequency. The different
signal arrival angles, and the resulting different position in the audio
sound stage, become the distinguishing factor when loudness and pitch are
the same. It doesn't bother me that I might be hearing the station primarily
in one ear because I'm used to operating SO2R. 

Of course, I can't use diversity when I'm tuning the second radio, but I use
it primarily for working large pileups when the rate is so high I can't tune
the second radio anyway. When the rate drops, I leave diversity on and
switch to listening to both radios. The run radio is in my left ear and I
hear the beam. So it's no different than when I do SO2R with diversity off.
If a station calls me on the run radio, I just switch back to both ears on
the run radio and I'm in diversity.

I've sometimes used diversity on 80 and 160, using a wire transmit antenna
and a beverage. It's helpful, but nowhere near as effective as it is on 40m.

73, Dick WC1M

-Original Message-
From: Barry N1EU [mailto:barry.n...@gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, January 09, 2012 7:46 AM
To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] diversity receive antennas


goldtr8 wrote
 
 What do folks use for diversity receive antennas.
 

ANY two antennas delivering reasonable signal strength on the rx band can be
quite useful for stereo diversity reception.

I've been using diversity since 2003, on the Orion and the K3 (see
http://n1eu.com/K3/diversity.htm ) 

Even two dipoles at different heights in the same direction can be quite
useful - you've got arrival angle diversity.  So just experiment - antennas
need not be elaborate or widely spaced.

I often use tx antenna plus Beverage on all bands (yes Beverage is often
helpful on 15M and occasionally on 10M) and normally use two Beverages on
160M/80M.

Besides any advantage in improving signal readability, the stereo effect
that diversity provides is a very enjoyable listening experience.

Barry N1EU


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View this message in context:
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Re: [Elecraft] K3 AGC Mush ... or blur

[Dick Green WC1M]

Awesome, Guy. I think your test will answer the questions I have about this
problem. Please post the results of your test with a different title than
above so we don't have to comb through a lot of posts to find it.

73, Dick WC1M

-Original Message-
From: Guy Olinger K2AV [mailto:olin...@bellsouth.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2011 3:17 AM
To: David Gilbert
Cc: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 AGC Mush ... or blur

Not to argue but to move toward clarity...

Low level signals are by definition closer to the noise. That would also
mean that there would be more stuff between CW bauds. Crisp
to some means that the artifacts which define the beginning and the ends of
a baud are there.  The extreme artifact is a key click.  A normal artifact
is additional bandwidth occurring at the edges of the baud, but reduced in
level. These are down 6, 12, 18, 24 dB from the pure sine wave. Without
these, the baud sounds soft, and the transitions on and off only excite the
directly on-tone nerves in the ear, instead of some number of tones.

Once the signal is close enough to the noise the baud start and stop
artifacts become obscured by the noise, but the signal is still copyable by
itself.  If there are multiple signals in this state and the tones are
close, our ears lose all clue of baud on/off other than slow (not sharp)
level transitions.  We lose harmonic artifacts, and now must rely only on
very soft level changes.  Ancient Bell Labs studies on these issues for
telephone would say that for most people, a change from one CW signal to
another at close to the same frequency, less than three dB in amplitude,
would not be a perceptible change.

On these issues in that QRM situation, one would EXPECT that kind of
muddyness in the S unit above the noise level.  This would happen in a
perfect receiver.  This is why someone's signal sending fast when they go
into the noise blurs the CW and the only way to overcome that is to slow
down signficantly.

**IF** the AGC was using settings that removed even those level differences
from hearing, the muddying would begin at higher levels above noise.  This
would happen in a perfect receiver.

**IF** the hardware AGC was exposed to significant CW signals outside the
DSP skirts due to use of a much wider roofer than the DSP width setting
(such as one listing of 500-800 Hz DSP under a 1000 roofer) the variable IF
gain stage would be tracking the HAGC imposition on the gain, and raising
and lowering the signal of the collective IN-DSP signals with foreign on/off
information not related to any of the in-band signals.  Muddle would be a
good word to describe that effect.
This is in a volume region where one is already losing clarity keying
artifacts to the noise floor.

***This effect would occur the worst in the range between where the DSP AGC
started to take up down to the noise***, and would otherwise be flattened
back by the DSP AGC responding only to the in-band signals and treating the
HAGC variations as propagation changes.

Slowing down the hardware AGC would prevent in-roofer-out-of-DSP baud-speed
external signal gain modulation to weak, under AGC in-band signals.

I should note for the record that in contests I am either running a
400 8 pole with DSP at 450 or a 250 8 pole with DSP at 350 or 150.
When the offsets of the filters are carefully adjusted, these produce the
sharpest composite skirts down 30 and 40 dB.  There is never any signal
outside the DSP limits making it to the hardware AGC.  I always use slow AGC
with the fastest possible decay.  I always have my PRE/ATT and RF gain
pushed back to match the band.

There may be something else going on, but with my settings I have never
heard any of the reported muddiness, other than the expected perfect RX
conditions listed above.

I am going to try the cap modification to my KRX3 only and listen in
diversity to a single antenna.  I will also set the main RX to keep the 400
8 pole as roofer all the way down. Then at 350 bandwidth, I will be
listening to a wide roofer on one and an equal roofer on the other.

Should be easy to put an XG3 + step attenuator tone IN band with a loud CW
signal between the skirts and see what happens.  Anything audio happening to
one RX and not the other should be really obvious.

73, Guy.

On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 12:39 PM, David Gilbert xda...@cis-broadband.com
wrote:

 The only time I heard mush on the K3 was when we had worked down the 
 pileup and only had very low strength guys all calling on the same 
 frequency (the packet/reverse beacon spotting phenomenon).


 Multiple low level signals close in frequency is EXACTLY the situation 
 that I and at least several others are concerned about.  I don't 
 notice the problem on stronger signals either, and my low level 
 hearing is still pretty good.   Operating from ZF-land where you 
 almost always have somebody strong calling you is not the typical 
 situation many of the rest of us experience from our home QTH's, and 

Re: [Elecraft] some advice if considering LP PAN, LP Bridge and your computer for K3 PSDR

[Dick Green WC1M]

I use a USB hub serial connection (two 8-port ByteRunner USB-to-serial
interfaces for a total of 16 ports!) for both of my K3s and have no problems
using LP-PAN, PSDR, etc. I also use an external USB sound card (the
recommended EMU-0200) and that works fine as well. I think it depends on
which brands you select, how old your computer BIOS is and how old your copy
of Windows is. YMMV.

I was able to do the resistor mod in the one radio I have that needed, but I
can see where others might not want to do it. I'm not real fond of working
with SMD either.

73, Dick WC1M

-Original Message-
From: Brian Pepperdine [mailto:brianpepperd...@sympatico.ca] 
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2011 10:34 AM
To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Elecraft] some advice if considering LP PAN, LP Bridge and your
computer for K3 PSDR


My apologies for a bit of divergence.
This concerns implementation of LP PAN and LP Bridge with PSDR for the K3.
Old hat perhaps, now that the P3 product exists.

In my case, living in Canada, I was not really willing to consider a P3 at
this time, with respect, as an Elecraft product.
We have 14% import GST tax as well as some high postage costs. 
As well,  a larger monitor to be used is better for my personal vision
situation.
Yes, I realize EU etc. has it worse re. obtaining a P3 as well.


Anyhow, the LP products are fine.
But if it was possible to go down bad roads getting them work, I took those
roads :)

So, caveats if you want to use LP products and the accompanying PSDR, with
your K3 (which IS wonderful):

-Do not use a USB hub serial connection. Most computers don't have a COMM
port these days, so be sure you have or are willing to get
a computer with some PCI and PCIe slots to put a COMM serial card into.

-Similarly, I advice a PCI based sound card. Firewire devices will likely,
possibly and probably only work IF you get a TI chipset based Firewire
interface, which are much less common as plug-in cards or on-board Firewire
in laptops. Certainly the device I had did not work with a non TI based
Firewire card.

-Lastly, if you have an older K3, be prepared or able to do or willing to
farm out the K3 IF I/0 modification. Yes, its only a resistor change, but
for me the SMD caught me blind-sided and I messed up. I killed some board
traces, killed the SMD JFET etc. Not pretty, not my finest moment, but first
time it was.
I fixed this with good help from Elecraft support and put in some wire paths
for the ruined traces and a leaded JFET.
(not an issue for K3s after a certain serial number..). Afterward, of course
I found some ideas on doing this better from Don Wilhelm. Such is fate.

Otherwise, now it all works very well. I am going to have good fun with this
now.

73
Brien 
VE3VAW
Toronto ON
  

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Re: [Elecraft] Odd Question [Elecraft history]

[Dick Green WC1M]

There are a number of reasons why going public profoundly changes companies,
often for the worse, but I would rank the influence of outside
stockholders as fairly low among them. In fact, in the case of many
privately-held startups, it's pressure from a handful of outside
stockholders that keeps management on its toes.

I think the most common problem for any growing company, public or private,
is size. Once you get to about 100 employees, the management structure has
to change in a big way. When that happens, the entrepreneurial spirit,
everybody-knows-everybody camaraderie, focus on quality, focus on the
customer, and can-do attitude tend to give way to approval hierarchies,
competition for position within the hierarchy, focus on compensation versus
job satisfaction, focus on numbers instead of quality, petty personal
agendas, and so forth. Maintaining the positive aspects of the previous
culture and hiring people who fit in with it become much more problematic.
One reason this is a characteristic of public companies is that a company
has to be relatively large to go public these days.

This is not to say that there aren't other negative aspects to being a
public company. First among them is the market's relentless focus on
short-term results. Management is expected to generate ever-increasing
returns and never miss their quarterly projections. This results in
sacrificing long-term goals to please the market, and sometimes financial
engineering or even cooking-the-books to make the numbers. This attitude
filters down the org chart and infects the employees such that many of them
are focused on the wrong things.

I'll admit this is a somewhat exaggerated description, and some public
companies have managed to figure out how to avoid these pitfalls to some
extent. Some do it through brilliant management, some by hiring only the
best and brightest, some by insisting that the long-term is more important
than the short term. But even in those companies, something precious that
smaller entrepreneurial enterprises have is lost.

Having been through a complete startup-to-exit cycle with my own software
company back in the '90s, and having spent 15 years coaching, managing and
investing in other teams doing the same, I have to say that I much prefer
the small company environment. The real trick is figuring out how grow while
preserving the good things that made you successful. From my observations of
the way Wayne and Eric conduct themselves and run Elecraft, I have great
hopes that they will be among the few who figure it out.

73, Dick WC1M

-Original Message-
From: n...@n5ge.com [mailto:n...@n5ge.com] 
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2011 9:06 AM
To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Odd Question [Elecraft history]



Not being public may be one of the reasons they are so successfull.  Outside
stockholders can make life miserable for companies like Elecraft.

Many privatly held businesses award uotstanding employees stock as rewards
for
their service.

Tom, N5GE

On Wed, 20 Apr 2011 21:08:45 -0500, Bill (K9YEQ) k9...@live.com wrote:

Alan,
I am still waiting on them to go public so I can get a few shares.  :-)

73,
Bill
K9YEQ


-Original Message-
From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Alan Bloom
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 7:14 PM
To: j...@audiosystemsgroup.com
Cc: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Odd Question [Elecraft history]

Elecraft reminds me of what Hewlett Packard company must have been like in
the early days.  Two engineering buddies start a company in their garage.
One (Dave Packard in the case of HP, Eric in the case of
Elecraft) gravitates toward the business end of the enterprise while the
other (Bill Hewlett, Wayne) concentrates on the engineering.

I wasn't around in the early days of HP, but maybe someday when Elecraft is
a multi-billion-dollar corporation I'll be able to say that I knew Eric and
Wayne way back when.  :=)

Alan N1AL


On Wed, 2011-04-20 at 15:51 -0700, Jim Brown wrote:
 On 4/20/2011 2:44 PM, Wayne Burdick wrote:
  Here's my account.
 
 VERY interesting, Wayne.  That fills in an important gap for me -- I 
 had not realized that Eric had the serious EE background that he does.  
 But that also makes another point that I've long felt about being a 
 good chief executive -- to do it really well, you need not only a 
 solid biz background, but also a solid technical understanding of 
 every aspect of the business you're trying to run.  Clearly, he has 
 all of that -- one of the things that has impressed me the most about 
 Elecraft is a near complete absence of dumb business or marketing
decisions!
 
 73, Jim K9YC
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Re: [Elecraft] An AGC Story

[Dick Green WC1M]

Speaking of criticism, I've done my share of complaining about AGC pumping
and pileup mush in the K3. That said, it's still the best contest receiver
I've ever use, by a wide margin. It's sensitive, quiet and incredibly
selective. In fact, I can get *too* close to adjacent stations without
realizing it! 

In actual contest conditions, the AGC pumping can be reduced to more-or-less
acceptable levels by using the 8-pole 400 Hz filter. It becomes a
non-problem with the 5-pole 200 Hz filter. I suspect it could be reduced
even more by increasing the HAGC threshhold, but evidently not without
changing other components in the chain to avoid increased IMD. 

IMHO, the pileup mush is no worse than any other receiver I've used, and
most of the time it's better (that sounds strange, but you know what I
mean.) Considering that I had quite a few hours with my rate meter near
200/hr in CQ WW CW, I'd have to say the mush isn't reducing my rate a whole
lot. One clue is that the mush effect is most noticable when there's a
pileup of relatively weak signals and there's not a nearby strong station --
i.e., when the HAGC is not activated. If most of the signals are at the same
pitch, it's mush. A bunch of really weak signals like that are simply darned
hard to copy, and I'm beginning to think that no receiver can separate them
unless AGC is turned off, with the attendant problem of ears being blown out
when a strong station drops by. I have found, however, that the situation
improves considerably with diversity reception using two antennas with
opposite polarity. There's enough difference in the ever-changing arrival
angles to be able to distinguish weak signals at the same pitch. No other
receiver can do that for me.

73, Dick WC1M

-Original Message-
From: Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy [mailto:gm4...@btinternet.com] 
Sent: Sunday, December 12, 2010 6:30 AM
To: Bob Henderson
Cc: Elecraft Discussion List
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] An AGC Story

Bob,

Yes I did see your post thanks, but have not yet had the opportunity to 
digest your results - but I will.

When you made these measurements, what settings did you use for the 'audio' 
Hi-cut and Lo-cut?

My thinking was that I would first look at the SA612's output wile injecting

multiple signals, and then do the same at suitable points along the signal 
path as it made its way to the audio output. By doing this it should be 
possible to find the weakest link in the chain (in terms of IMD), and then 
attempt to do something to improve the 'weak link's' performance.

May I take this opportunity to stress that my comments were not intended to 
be any kind of criticism of the K3.

73,
Geoff
GM4ESD

 .
Bob Henderson b...@5b4agn.net wrote on Sunday, December 12, 2010 4:11 AM:

snip

 I made within DSP b/w IMD measurements on my K3 and comparable
 measurements on my K2. These were included in a post dated 5 December
 but you may have missed it.

 The following measurements relate to K3 S/N 4904 on 7MHz with 2.7kHz
 roofing filter and 2.7kHz DSP b/w.  Default slow AGC was selected.
 The table shows input level at the K3 antenna connector for
 each of two carriers spaced 500Hz.  At each input level, the level of
 the strongest IMD product observed at the AF output using an HP8568B is 
 recorded
 alongside.

snip




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Re: [Elecraft] [K3] K3NA on 5 pole vs 8 pole filters

[Dick Green WC1M]

I had exactly the same experience as Bill (and I'm an ex-Orion user as
well.) While Eric is correct that, in theory, roofing filters with tights
skirts aren't necessary in a down-conversion design, the K3's hardware AGC
threshold requires tighter roofing filters when the band is crowded with
loud signals. I had the 5-pole 500 Hz filters, but quickly found that HAGC
pumping was a real problem in big CW contests. I was routinely bothered by
loud stations just above my passband (using CW NOR). I subsequently replaced
the 5-pole filters with 8-pole 400 Hz filters and the problem pretty-much
disappeared. Like Bill, I think the HAGC threshold is still a bit too low.

73, Dick WC1M

-Original Message-
From: Bill W4ZV [mailto:btipp...@alum.mit.edu] 
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2010 4:39 PM
To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] [K3] K3NA on 5 pole vs 8 pole filters



Alfred Frugoli wrote:
 
 I remember reading a comparison by I think K3NA on the differences between
 5
 pole and 8 pole filters that eventually lead me to stick with the 5 pole
 filters. 
 

Eric and I are both ex-Orion users, which worked well with 4-pole filters so
I concluded 5-poles would be sufficient in the K3.  After receiving my first
K3 I discovered it had a much lower hardware AGC threshold. This led to the
HAGC mod which was implemented around S/N 350, but I still don't think the
threshold is as high as Orion's.  Therefore the steeper skirts in the 8-pole
filters are necessary to prevent AGC pumping from close-in strong signals. 
I've since switched from all 5-pole 500s to all 8-pole 500s (Inrads) in both
of my units.  

I suspect the K3 could be improved without other harmful effects by raising
the AGC threshold a little more.  Someday when I have nothing better to do I
may try some experiments to see.  The DSP filters in both rigs are probably
similar but the lower AGC threshold in the K3 makes it more susceptible to
strong adjacent signals if you only use 5-pole filters.  However if you
don't operate in extreme environments like 160 contests you may never notice
any difference.

73,  Bill
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View this message in context:
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Re: [Elecraft] K3 in a cw pileup - needs work

[Dick Green WC1M]

Dave indicates that the problem occurred when the pileup consisted of four
or five loud stations. This leads me to wonder if the cause is the K3
hardware AGC threshold being too low, even after the mod introduced two
years ago. That mod was supposed to raise the threshold from S9+5 dB to
S9+25-30 dB.

I got into this issue after repeatedly being botherd by thumping from loud
CW stations above my passband during big contests. When I first noticed it,
I was using the 5-pole 500 Hz filters and the DSP set to about 300 Hz. I'd
hear the thumping from stations more than 150 Hz or even 250 Hz above my
frequency. Testing revealed that I could hear thumping from loud CW signals
as far as 700Hz away. The testing also showed that the filters were
effective against a loud continuous carrier, but CW signals were slipping
under the skirts. This suggested that the problem is caused by the hardware
AGC being tripped by the loud signals. I switched to 8-pole 400 Hz filters,
and that improved the situation considerably.

My testing probably wasn't lab-quality, but it showed that the hardware AGC
really kicks in much lower than S9+25-30dB. I think it's more like S9, or
just above. Perhaps if two or more signals in Dave's pileup were that lour
or louder, the hardware AGC kicked in and mushed them together?

73, Dick WC1M


 -Original Message-
 From: Dave Hachadorian [mailto:k...@arrl.net]
 Sent: Friday, February 05, 2010 10:45 PM
 To: Elecraft Reflector
 Subject: [Elecraft] K3 in a cw pileup - needs work
 
 Tonight I used a pair of K3's in the Sprint practice. Several
 times I had a pileup of four or five loud stations calling me.
 With AGC turned on, they were all mushed together, and I couldn't
 copy any of them.
 
 AGC settings:
 dcy soft
 hld 0.2
 pls nor
 slp 000
 thr 008
 f 200
 s 020
 
 I tried both fast and slow agc. No joy.
 
 So I turned the AGC OFF. Now this introduces another problem -
 the very low threshold of the AF Limiter. The AF limiter, even at
 its highest setting of 030 introduces gross distortion on loud
 signals. This is even worse than the mushy AGC.
 
 So I transfer the headphones to the speaker output, so I can
 reduce the AF gain setting in an attempt to get away from the
 raucous AF limiter. This works for a while, until finally one
 loud signal blows out the K3's audio amplifier. This is the
 second time that has happened to me. I guess I'm a slow learner
 on that issue.
 
 Something really needs to be done here. My suggestions would to
 raise the agc threshold further, and increase the slope of the
 agc line (that would mean a slp setting of less than zero). The
 AF limiter threshold also needs to be raised, and the AF speaker
 output needs better protection.
 
 Dave Hachadorian, K6LL
 Yuma, AZ
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 .
 
 


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Re: [Elecraft] Rose's Covers Cases

[Dick Green WC1M]

I'd also like to endorse Rose's work. She made me two K3 cases per W0YK's
DXpedition design (compatible with Ed's foam protectors), and a dust cover
for my key. Excellent craftsmanship and prompt, courteous service.

73, Dick WC1M

 -Original Message-
 From: J.A. Wolf, MD, K6JW [mailto:k...@scdxc.org]
 Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 2010 1:19 PM
 To: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net
 Subject: [Elecraft] Rose's Covers  Cases
 
 I just received a dust cover from Rose for my K3: black with the Elecraft
 logo and name and my callsign embroidered in red. The cover is well done,
if
 lighter in weight than some other covers I've had in the past. I
requested,
 and Rose provided, a nice cutout on the lower left for the mic and
headphone
 cables. A good product, well made, fairly priced, and promptly supplied. I
 would recommend Rose's work to anyone looking for a dust cover for their
 Elecraft baby. Rose can be reached at elecraftcov...@rfwave.net. She has a
 website where you can see her products at http://tinyurl.com/7lm3m5.
 (Disclosure: I have NO business connection with Rose -- I'm just a
customer.)
 --Jeff, K6JW

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Re: [Elecraft] Rose's Covers Cases

[Dick Green WC1M]

I don't think there's standard pricing on any of Rose's products because
they're custom. Just email or call with your specifications and they'll
quote you a price. The deluxe large cases I bought were about $150 each, not
including shipping and the foam inserts. The key cover was $21.

73, Dick WC1M

 -Original Message-
 From: k...@baymoon.com [mailto:k...@baymoon.com]
 Sent: Thursday, February 04, 2010 5:53 PM
 To: wc1...@gmail.com
 Cc: 'J.A. Wolf, MD, K6JW'; elecraft@mailman.qth.net
 Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Rose's Covers  Cases
 
 The covers look interesting but I didn't find any pricing info. Is there
 somewhere I can find out how much these things cost?
 
 Rob K6RB
 
 
  I'd also like to endorse Rose's work. She made me two K3 cases per
W0YK's
  DXpedition design (compatible with Ed's foam protectors), and a dust
cover
  for my key. Excellent craftsmanship and prompt, courteous service.
 
  73, Dick WC1M
 
  -Original Message-
  From: J.A. Wolf, MD, K6JW [mailto:k...@scdxc.org]
  Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 2010 1:19 PM
  To: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net
  Subject: [Elecraft] Rose's Covers  Cases
 
  I just received a dust cover from Rose for my K3: black with the
  Elecraft
  logo and name and my callsign embroidered in red. The cover is well
  done,
  if
  lighter in weight than some other covers I've had in the past. I
  requested,
  and Rose provided, a nice cutout on the lower left for the mic and
  headphone
  cables. A good product, well made, fairly priced, and promptly
supplied.
  I
  would recommend Rose's work to anyone looking for a dust cover for
their
  Elecraft baby. Rose can be reached at elecraftcov...@rfwave.net. She
has
  a
  website where you can see her products at http://tinyurl.com/7lm3m5.
  (Disclosure: I have NO business connection with Rose -- I'm just a
  customer.)
  --Jeff, K6JW
 
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  Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
 
 
 


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Re: [Elecraft] K3 needs survey -- firmware and application software

[Dick Green WC1M]

Dick,

LP-Bridge acts as a traffic cop that allows multiple programs to share the
K3 COM port without interfering with each other. It opens the K3 COM port
and sends various commands to obtain a continous flow of commonly-sought
status information. It intercepts status commands from multiple programs
attached to virtual COM ports and routes the appropriate status information
to them. When a program sends a command to the K3 that elicits a specific
reponse, the response is sent back to that program only.

73, Dick WC1M

 -Original Message-
 From: Dick Dievendorff [mailto:die...@comcast.net]
 Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 3:35 PM
 To: 'Julian, G4ILO'; elecraft@mailman.qth.net
 Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 needs survey -- firmware and application
software
 
 Would the loggers object to receiving responses to commands that they
didn't
 issue?
 
 Dick, K6KR
 
 
 
 -Original Message-
 From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net
 [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Julian, G4ILO
 Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 12:28 PM
 To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
 Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 needs survey -- firmware and application
software
 
 
 
 
 Dick Dievendorff wrote:
 
  Would you dedicate the K3's serial port to this function?  Instead of a
  contest logger?
 
 
 Why would you need to, given LP-PAN, VSPE etc?
 
 -
 Julian, G4ILO. K2 #392  K3 #222.
 * G4ILO's Shack - http://www.g4ilo.com
 * KComm - http://www.g4ilo.com/kcomm.html
 * KTune - http://www.g4ilo.com/ktune.html
 
 --
 View this message in context:

http://n2.nabble.com/K3-needs-survey-firmware-and-application-software-tp420
 9832p4210432.html
 Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
 __
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Re: [Elecraft] K3 needs survey -- firmware and application software

[Dick Green WC1M]

My wish is to be able to change any setting while transmitting. Most
important, I would like to be able to change Width, Shift, Hi, Lo, RIT/XIT,
RIT/XIT on/off, and RIT/XIT CLR. I'd also like to be able to change EQ, VOX
and AGC parameters, though those are less important.

73, Dick WC1M

 -Original Message-
 From: Wayne Burdick [mailto:n...@elecraft.com]
 Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 1:02 PM
 To: Elecraft Reflector; elecr...@yahoogroups.com;
elecraft...@yahoogroups.com
 Subject: [Elecraft] K3 needs survey -- firmware and application software
 
 Hi all,
 
 As you probably know, we keep a list of firmware features and
 improvements to be added as time permits. Many of the most-requested
 changes were made over the past several months, keeping pace with the
 demands of the fall/winter contest season. (A few that come to mind:
 switch sequence automation via macros, improved DVR interaction with
 PTT, main/sub audio mixing, improved NR, lockable transmit controls,
 and many enhanced remote-control commands.)
 
 As we head into 2010, we'd like to refresh the master firmware list
 based on your input. Items already on the list have priority, of
 course, but this is a great opportunity to let us know what else is
 missing or could be improved. Our goal is to make the K3 as easy to
 use as possible, while providing the advanced features you need for
 specific operating situations.
 
 We're also planning a renewed effort to assist application software
 developers. If your ideas for improvements involve changes to both K3
 firmware and a favorite application, we'll pass it along to the
 developers and work with them closely.
 
 We're making great progress on the P3 Panadapter and other new
 products. There will be some surprises in 2010 :)
 
 73,
 Wayne
 N6KR
 


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Re: [Elecraft] K3 needs survey -- firmware and application software

[Dick Green WC1M]

Not sure exactly what you're describing in the first example, but I believe
the answer is that the commands are serialized. I'm not sure just how clever
LP-Bridge may be about deferring or discarding commands that can't be
executed because the rig is in a state that prevents it. This probably
happens all the time, without LP-Bridge, when the rig is transmitting and
the logger wants to change some parameter that can't be changed during
transmit. The command is essentially ignored in that case.

The second example is straightforward. If a program sends a frequency change
command, the second program won't be aware of it unless it polls or sends an
appropriate status query command. But this is no different from the scenario
where the user manually twirls the VFO dial. That's why most programs that
need frequency information either poll or issue commands to get status when
it's needed.

73, Dick WC1M

 -Original Message-
 From: Dick Dievendorff [mailto:die...@comcast.net]
 Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 5:38 PM
 To: wc1...@gmail.com; 'Julian, G4ILO'; elecraft@mailman.qth.net
 Subject: RE: [Elecraft] K3 needs survey -- firmware and application
software
 
 If one program opens a menu, and another program sends a VFO UP command,
 is the second program's UP command deferred somehow because the first
 program has a menu open?
 
 If one program sends a frequency change command, will the second program
be
 aware of that new frequency without polling?
 
 My point is that the programs must cooperate, and that's not always
 possible.
 
 Dick
 
 
 -Original Message-
 From: Dick Green WC1M [mailto:wc1...@gmail.com]
 Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 2:31 PM
 To: 'Dick Dievendorff'; 'Julian, G4ILO'; elecraft@mailman.qth.net
 Subject: RE: [Elecraft] K3 needs survey -- firmware and application
software
 
 Dick,
 
 LP-Bridge acts as a traffic cop that allows multiple programs to share the
 K3 COM port without interfering with each other. It opens the K3 COM port
 and sends various commands to obtain a continous flow of commonly-sought
 status information. It intercepts status commands from multiple programs
 attached to virtual COM ports and routes the appropriate status
information
 to them. When a program sends a command to the K3 that elicits a specific
 reponse, the response is sent back to that program only.
 
 73, Dick WC1M
 
  -Original Message-
  From: Dick Dievendorff [mailto:die...@comcast.net]
  Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 3:35 PM
  To: 'Julian, G4ILO'; elecraft@mailman.qth.net
  Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 needs survey -- firmware and application
 software
 
  Would the loggers object to receiving responses to commands that they
 didn't
  issue?
 
  Dick, K6KR
 
 
 
  -Original Message-
  From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net
  [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Julian, G4ILO
  Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 12:28 PM
  To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
  Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 needs survey -- firmware and application
 software
 
 
 
 
  Dick Dievendorff wrote:
  
   Would you dedicate the K3's serial port to this function?  Instead of
a
   contest logger?
  
 
  Why would you need to, given LP-PAN, VSPE etc?
 
  -
  Julian, G4ILO. K2 #392  K3 #222.
  * G4ILO's Shack - http://www.g4ilo.com
  * KComm - http://www.g4ilo.com/kcomm.html
  * KTune - http://www.g4ilo.com/ktune.html
 
  --
  View this message in context:
 

http://n2.nabble.com/K3-needs-survey-firmware-and-application-software-tp420
  9832p4210432.html
  Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
  __
  Elecraft mailing list
  Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
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  This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
  Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
 
 


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Re: [Elecraft] K3 needs survey -- firmware and application software

[Dick Green WC1M]

Julian Moss G4ILO wrote:

 If developers find a need to access menus in
 their applications for reasons other than configuration, it could
 indicate there is a need for a command that could directly access that
 information.

I couldn't agree more.

73, Dick WC1M


 -Original Message-
 From: Julian Moss [mailto:julian.g4...@gmail.com]
 Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 7:08 PM
 To: Dick Dievendorff
 Cc: Wayne Burdick; wc1...@gmail.com; elecraft@mailman.qth.net
 Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 needs survey -- firmware and application
software
 
 Yes. I don't know why he asked for that. Perhaps he would care to say
 why it would be useful? I don't think that many people would want that
 information on display in real time so I wouldn't expect that
 developers would rush to provide a display that showed AGC parameters
 anyway.
 
 Applications should not be accessing menus unless they are
 configuration tools which should not be used while loggers and other
 software is running. If developers find a need to access menus in
 their applications for reasons other than configuration, it could
 indicate there is a need for a command that could directly access that
 information.
 
 On 23/12/2009, Dick Dievendorff die...@comcast.net wrote:
  Barry asked for the ability to display AGC parameters.  These values are
  currently read by accessing menus and reading them from the VFO A
display
  area.  During that menu access, another application might send an UP or
DN
  command, which could change one of the AGC parameters.  That's my only
  point.  New single-command queries could solve that particular issue.
 
 --
 Julian, G4ILO
 G4ILO's Shack: www.g4ilo.com

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Re: [Elecraft] K3 160M Diversity Users

[Dick Green WC1M]

My experience pretty-much aligns with Bill's. I started out with matched
pairs of 5-pole 500 Hz and 5-pole 200 Hz filters. The 500/200 combination
makes a little more sense than the 400/250 combination because there's more
difference between the filter widths.

Like Bill, I rarely use the 200 Hz filters. Most of my use is contesting. If
you spend too much time with BW cranked down to 200 Hz or less, you're going
to miss a lot of callers. I only use narrow BW when someone plops down very
close to my frequency when I'm in the middle of a QSO. That said, the narrow
BW saves me every now and then, which for me is worth the cost.

I was fairly satisfied with the 5-pole 500 Hz filters, but was sometimes
bothered by thumping and clicking from loud stations (S9 and higher) just
above my passband. This is likely caused by the hardware AGC activating at
somewhat too low a level. Quite a while ago there was a fix to the RF board
to raise the threshold, but some of us think it's still too low.

At any rate, though the theory says that roofing filters aren't responsible
for the ultimate selectivity (the DSP does that), I found that they do make
a difference in the above situation. Switching off the 500 Hz filters and
using the 200 Hz filters produced audibly less interference, most likely by
providing greater attenuation at the hardware AGC stage. That induced me to
replace the 5-pole 500 Hz filters with 8-pole 400 Hz filters.

The result was a minimal improvement, not easily detected by testing. The
real test will come this fall when I'm squeezed into 40m or 20m with
zillions of loud stations on either side.

All that said, Bill is correct that, with the matching fee, the price
difference between 5-pole and 8-pole filters is small enough that it makes
sense to get the 8-pole filters. I should note that the 8-pole filters are
not necessarily perfectly centered, but they're close enough that you
probably won't need to use any offset for diversity.

As far as the 200 Hz vs 250 Hz filters go, if you want to have them in
reserve for those really tough QRM situations, I would get the 5-pole 200 Hz
filters. Elecraft says they're narrower than the 250 Hz filters all the way
down. Also, there's more BW difference between the 200s and the 400s/500s.

I agree completely with Bill on the merits of diversity: with the right
antennas, it's amazing.

73, Dick WC1M

 -Original Message-
 From: Bill W4ZV [mailto:btipp...@alum.mit.edu]
 Sent: Friday, July 24, 2009 10:27 PM
 To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
 Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 160M Diversity Users
 
 
 W4UM wrote:
 
  What are your recommendation if I were to get only
 one pair of filters?
 
 I would go with either the 500 or 400 8-poles.
 
  Is there any real value to getting a pair of narrow
 (200Hz or 250Hz) filters as well as a pair of the wider (400Hz or 500Hz)
CW
 filters, or am I just wasting money?
 
 I have a 200 Hz in my Main in addition to 500 Hz 8-poles in Main and Sub.
 If you contest or are in huge simplex pileups, there are definitely times
 when the 200 Hz may be useful.  For some reason I don't understand, I have
 no offset warbling when setting WIDTH to 200 (which enables the 200 Hz in
 Main and 500 Hz in Sub).  Most of the time when listening to weak signals,
I
 use 350-500 Hz WIDTH so a pair of 500 Hz filters is fine excluding the
 extreme cases of simplex pileups or a strong station nearby (e.g. the CQ
160
 CW contest).
 
  Is there a noticeable difference between the 5-pole and 8-pole filters?
 
 I used 5-pole 500s in my first K3 and have not noticed a significant
 difference with the 8-poles, but I've not compared them simultaneously.
As
 you stated, there's little cost difference (after the matching charge) so
I
 went with the 8-pole 500 Hz when it became available.  I personally prefer
a
 slightly wider BW than the 400 Hz allows but that's another option some
 choose.
 
 You'll love diversity on 160 and 80, especially if you have good RX
 antennas.  I use my TX antenna (similar to a 4-square) in one RX and
 Beverages in the other, and I use diversity 99% of the time on the low
 bands.  I would never own any rig without diversity now that I've used it.
 
 73,  Bill  W4ZV
 --
 View this message in context:
http://n2.nabble.com/K3-160M-Diversity-Users-
 tp3322951p3323855.html
 Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com.


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Re: [Elecraft] K3 Diversity Rocks!

[Dick Green WC1M]

Does it ever!

My best Diversity setup is on 40m: a Cal-Av 2D-40A (full-size 2-el
horizontal phased array with excellent gain and F/B) at 110' and a full-size
4-square vertical array with 60 ground radials per element.

While effective for receive (highly directional and quiet), the 4-square
can't hold a candle to the Cal-Av on either receive or transmit (that was
also true when the beam was a 40-2CD at 50'!) When conditions are good, the
Cal-Av is significantly louder on receive than the 4-square. I've seen
differences ranging from 5-20 dB. The DC-grounded design make the Cal-Av an
unusually quiet horizontally-polarized antenna, but under some
circumstances, such as very heavy rain or snow static, the 4-square can be
quieter. There's absolutely no comparison on transmit: the beam is always
superior. Before trying Diversity, I only used the 4-square when noise on
the beam was really bad, or more often to work stations off the back of the
Cal-AV, which has about 20 dB F/B. I was skeptical about how much it would
help to use the antennas in Diversity, and wasn't at all prepared for how
effective the combination would be. It's made a huge difference in my
contest production on 40m. I'm consistently running at higher rates on 40m
than ever before, with fewer mistakes and fewer fills.

As others have pointed out, Diversity is terrific for dealing with QSB. In
the vast majority of cases, when a signal fades on one antenna I can still
hear it on the other antenna. I've also found Diversity to be effective
during static crashes -- the signal coming from one antenna will get wiped
out, but I'll still hear it on the other (not 100% of the time, but often.)
Diversity is also a great help for sorting out stations in big pileups. My
2-el is pretty loud to EU, so I can generate deep pileups. When stations of
about the same signal strength are on top of each other, it's pretty-much
impossible to separate them. But often the two signals will arrive
differently on the two oppositely-polarized antennas, and that small
difference can be just enough for me to pull out one of the calls or at
least a few letters. Finally, when I'm running EU and a weak US station
calls me off the back of the beam, I can flip the 4-square to SW and hear
the station without compromising my signal to EU (I can also continue to
transmit on the beam while switching the 4-square back and forth, something
I couldn't do when I used to parallel the antennas.)

I haven't tried Diversity on 160m and 80m all that much. I have a dual 580'
NE/SW beverage (more like NNE/SSW), but my transmit antennas are modest: an
80m delta loop at 70' and a trapped 160m/80m inverted vee at 90'. I can't
generate big pileups where Diversity would help me sort out calls. Also, I
rarely run on 160m and the rate is considerably lower on 80m than on 40m.
Consequently, I'm usually SPing another band on the second radio, which
eliminates use of that ear for Diversity. Another reason for avoiding
Diversity is that the transmit antennas usually pick up a lot of noise.
Under poor conditions noise from the transmit antennas in one ear becomes
distracting and it's best to listen on the beverage only. Under less noisy
conditions, I think Diversity could be helpful for combating QSB and QRN, as
well as hearing weak stations off the back of the beverage. I'll have to
experiment with that some more.

73, Dick WC1M  

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Re: [Elecraft] IPhone apps: remote control of K3, etc.?

[Dick Green WC1M]

Wayne,

I think you use a MAC, but in case you have a PC at your disposal, you can
sign up for a free PC remote control service called LogMeIn
(www.logmein.com.) They have an app at the iTunes store called LogMeIn
Ignition that will let you remote control the PC from your iPhone. You can
run an app like Ham Radio Deluxe on the PC to control the K3.

Unfortunately, LogMeIn Ignition is the most expensive iPhone app I've seen,
at $30. I use it for remote control of rotors on my tower while climbing, so
it was worth it for me.

LogMeIn works on the MAC, too, but I don't know if there are any MAC-based
K3 control programs.

73, Dick WC1M


-Original Message-
From: Wayne Burdick [mailto:n...@elecraft.com] 
Sent: Saturday, June 27, 2009 3:37 PM
To: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Elecraft] IPhone apps: remote control of K3, etc.?

Anyone have iPhone ham apps to recommend? Want to write one that will  
let me remote-base my K3 while on vacation? :)

73, Wayne, N6KR

Sent from my iPhone


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Re: [Elecraft] New K3 Firmware: Pileup-inspired AGC changes

[Dick Green WC1M]

I did that FT-1000MP mod and the improvement was marginal. It didn't correct
the problem of AGC mush in the passband with big pileups. Lots of IMD in
big contests with that radio, too.

73, Dick WC1M

 -Original Message-
 From: Bill W4ZV [mailto:btipp...@alum.mit.edu]
 Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 6:32 AM
 To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
 Subject: Re: [Elecraft] New K3 Firmware: Pileup-inspired AGC changes
 
 
 
 
 Jan Erik Holm wrote:
 
  Don Rasmussen wrote:
  Anyone care to take a guess as to how long an anomoly like this
 would
  live in any other mass produced HF transceiver?
 
  My guess - the life of the radio.
 
  Maybe the Flex guys would get to it.
 
  With Elecraft, the issue was identified on the weekend, and here it
 is
  Wednesday of the same week, the engineers understand the effect and
 offer
  test software for it.
 
  Kudos!
 
  Indeed! Just one example. As I understand this problem the Yaesu
  FT-1000MP suffers from the same (lets call it) AGC IMD. On the
  MP I have noticed it myself and others too but it is not widely
  written about.
  Very glad to see that it possibly can be fixed on the K3.
 
 
  73 Jim SM2EKM
 
 
 Like everything else about the nasty key-click generator FT-1000MP,
 it's
 left to the customer to find and fix any problems.  Yaesu did nothing
 about
 the key clicks for at least 13 years (beginning with FT-1000D until a
 production change for the MP in 2003)...and Yaesu is now reliving
 design
 problems with the roofing filters in the FT-2000.
 
 BTW Inrad did implement fixes for both the MP's clicks and the AGC
 problem
 (the customer must pay for all Yaesu design errors, of course):
 
 FT-1000MP AGC Improvement Mod
 
 Some operators on major DX-peditions have complained about poor
 readability
 in large pile ups. From a joint effort between Inrad and some of these
 operators, we are now offering the AGC mod which improves readability
 somewhat for both CW and SSB. Details of the history is included in
 the mod
 instruction sheets.
 
 This new mod increases the decay time, which in the FT-1000MP is so
 fast
 that weaker signals can come up to full output between dots and dashes
 (or
 speech peaks), causing poor readability in pile ups. It also uses a
 damping
 resistor to eliminate a slight over shoot. Please be aware that under
 normal or average operating conditions, this mod will make very
 little
 discernible difference.
 
 The AGC mod is not applicable to the Mark V.
 
 http://www.inrad.net/product.php?productid=86cat=10page=1
 
 What a horrible contrast Yaesu was to my very pleasant experience with
 Elecraft!
 
 73,  Bill
 --
 View this message in context: http://n2.nabble.com/New-K3-Firmware%3A-
 Pileup-inspired-AGC-changes-tp2387110p2389115.html
 Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
 


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Re: [Elecraft] Elecraft Dust Covers, Carry Cases, and More

[Dick Green WC1M]

Has anyone posted pictures of Rose's cases? Are they soft cases or hard
cases?

73, Dick WC1M

 -Original Message-
 From: Gary Hvizdak [mailto:garyhviz...@cfl.rr.com]
 Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 10:28 PM
 To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
 Subject: [Elecraft] Elecraft Dust Covers, Carry Cases, and More
 
 Hi Group,
 
 As I await the arrival of my hand crafted K3 carrying case from Rose
 Kopp, I
 feel compelled to share a thing or two about my experience so far.
 
 Yes, I've seen the comments here on the Reflector about the quality of
 her
 workmanship, but I don't recall seeing anything about what a total
 pleasure
 it is doing business with her.  IT'S DOWNRIGHT FUN working with Rose
 to
 select exactly what combination of colors you might like best.
 
 Some other things you might not know are ...
 
 1) It usually takes Rose one day to make a K2 or K3 case.
 
 2) Rose and OM Ken first met here in Melbourne, Florida at a high
 school
 football game back in 1959.  They got married a month later.
 
 How do I know all this?  Like I said, it's downright fun doing
 business with
 Rose!  :)
 
 73,
 Gary KI4GGX
 


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Re: [Elecraft] New Eham.net K3 review by QRPNEW

[Dick Green WC1M]

It occurred to me also that this anonymous review may have been posted by a
competitor...

I don't do much SSB operating on my K3, but I was struck by the comments
about splatter on SSB. Given the comments about ALC, this suggests to me
that the guy doesn't know how to drive an amplifier. Most amps don't require
ALC feedback if you adjust them correctly in the first place. More
important, ALC doesn't always work well. You really have to design both
circuits together for it to work properly, and that's obviously not the case
when you pair random transceivers and amplifiers. Not clear that the guy did
the ALC mod, but even if he did it's not guaranteed to produce optimum
results under all conditions. With amps out of sight in the basement, he's
probably overdriving them and/or not tuning them properly for maximum gain,
and thus creating splatter.

73, Dick WC1M

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[Elecraft] why the K3 is my favorite rig

[Dick Green WC1M]

Recently, there was a post on the FOC reflector to the effect that the
FT2000 is a superior choice to the K3. Much of the criticism of the K3
centered around the size and heft of the rig, as well as the cost. Here
are my thoughts on the subject:

 

Amateur radio is a diverse hobby with a diverse population of operators.
It's unlikely that one rig can fit all, or even dominate a market. The way I
see it, the K3 addresses a segment of the market that values
high-performance. This includes, but is not limited to, contesters and
DXers. As it happens, contesters and DXers make up a relatively small
segment of the overall amateur population (though we are often the most
vocal group!) Still, there's plenty of money to be made from this small
segment because its constituents tend to commit considerable resources to
the hobby (money, land, towers, antennas, time, and electronics.) Many of us
are on a never-ending quest for that last 1 dB of antenna gain, that last
bit of S/N, that last bit of selectivity, etc. Some of it is driven by
competition (we don't like missing a weak station or losing out in a
pileup), and some of it seems to be a perfectionist streak common to many
contesters and DXers. Also, I think K3 fans tend to be somewhat more
technically-oriented than others in the market. And I think some of us are
getting old and our ears need all the help they can get!

 

I've used quite a few rigs over the past 25 years, and none of them has
pleased me as much as the K3. Yeah, I liked the Drake twins, but keeping
them tubed, aligned and operating properly was a chore, and the lack of
features and flexibility would drive me crazy nowadays. Most of the rigs
I've used suffered from poor selectivity (a choice between shallow filtering
or ringing) and poor IMD rejection. Of the previous generation of rigs, the
Yaesu FT-1000D and Icom 781 are probably the best I've used for contesting,
but still suffer from those problems. Also, they're big, heavy, take up a
lot of desk space and generate a lot of heat. Neither is particularly
flexible. Neither is practical for the owner to repair, and spare parts are
becoming hard to find.

 

The Orion was the first rig really able to deal with ultra-crowded bands and
challenging propagation conditions. The combination of roofing filters and
DSP filtering makes an incredible difference. The rig is very flexible, too.
The box is large enough to look serious, the screen is large (in color on
the O-II), and the knobs/buttons are large enough for most operators.
Unfortunately (or fortunately for Elecraft), Ten-Tec designed the rig
without asking customers what they wanted, and wound up with one of the
worst user interfaces on the market. Some contest station owners won't let
an Orion in the door because the learning curve for new ops is too high. To
compound the matter, the firmware is poorly designed and poorly implemented.
Some of the original performance of the radio has been lost in so-called
firmware improvements. Since those were introduced several years ago, the
firmware has not been updated at all. The hardware itself is fairly
reliable, but there are a number of areas where substandard components were
used and they tend to fail over time (encoders, relays, etc.)

 

When I first opened my Orion, I was amazed and somewhat disappointed by the
large amount of empty space inside the chassis. I thought, What a waste of
space!. As we know from our K3 experience, Ten-Tec could easily have fit
the circuitry in a much smaller box. I suspect they made the choice for a
larger box based on the screen size, number of buttons and knobs, and a
desire to make the radio look serious.

 

I understand that the K3's form factor might mislead the casual observer to
think that the radio is not serious. This is clearly more of an issue with
the observer's psychology than the K3's capabilities. Marketers do have to
pay attention to buyer psychology, but they don't have to cater to the
lowest common denominator if there are enough other buyers in the market
with different psychology. 

 

I guess I'm one of the latter. The K3 is by-far the best and most capable HF
radio I've ever used, and I really don't care what the package looks like.
In fact, I've come to appreciate the small form factor -- it takes up very
little space on my desk and it's much easier to get the radio out of its
operating position and onto the workbench for upgrades and mods. I haven't
taken it to another station for guest operating, but based on my previous
experience lugging a 1000D and an Orion, it'll be a pleasure to take the K3.
I can't see how the K3 could fail to become the DXpedition radio of choice
-- this is where the small form factor is worth gold.

 

The K3 has another advantage that may have been overlooked by appliance
operators: there's no other full-featured, high-performance HF rig that you
can buy in kit form. To me, the value has not been so much the cost saving,
but the opportunity to understand how the 

RE: [Elecraft] K3 problems keying Alpha 87A

[Dick Green WC1M]

Charlie,

 

I'm using a K3 to drive my 87A, with no problems. What fault are you getting
from the 87A? Does it occur on all bands, or just some or one? How do you
have the K3 cabled to the 87A? I assume you're not using the keying loop,
which is complicated to setup on the K3 and doesn't work properly on the 87A
anyway.

 

73, Dick WC1M

 

From: cdeweyjr [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: Friday, October 17, 2008 9:15 AM
To: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Elecraft] K3 problems keying Alpha 87A

 

Yesterday I connected my new factory built K3 to my Alpha 87A and the
amplifier keeps going into fault on the first key closure.  Power was only
set at about 30 watts.  Is there a power spike causing this or some other
problem I am not aware of?  I am brand new to this list and am not aware of
previous discussion relating to this issue.  Thanks, Charlie, W0CD

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RE: [Elecraft] OT - PC Oscilliscope Performance

[Dick Green WC1M]

Mike,

You might want to compare the Bitscope 310 with the Velleman PCSU1000 60 MHz
PC-based scope. Depending on where you buy it, the Velleman is about half
the price of the Bitscope. It doesn't have the eight separate logic channels
and built-in function generator, but it has most of the rest of the features
of the Bitscope, and more. The Velleman software appears to be superior,
too, thought I'm only basing that on the feature lists -- haven't actually
used the Bitscope software.

I'm pretty pleased with the Velleman PCSU1000, but there's one task I
haven't been able to get it to do yet: display the CW envelope. I'm not sure
if this is due to not feeding it a clean trigger signal (I think the output
from my keyer needs to be buffered) or if scope sample rate isn't high
enough.

I don't know the exact technical details of how sample rate figures into
these PC-based scopes, but I imagine like any A/D converter they
periodically sample the waveform. The higher the frequency and resolution,
the higher the sample rate required. The Bitscope 310 lists a 40Ms/s maximum
sample rate, and the Velleman has a max of 50Ms/s. The sample rate used
depends on the sweep rate (lower sweep rate = lower sample rate.) But the
Velleman has a 1Gs/S rate that can be switched on for four of the highest
sweep rates (.2us, .-1us, .05us and .02us.) When viewing a 7MHz signal from
my K3, I found the waveform wobbled unless I used the 1GS/s modes. Then it
was rock steady.

When displaying the K3 CW envelope, I fed the signal from my keyer into one
channel and the RF into the other channel (I use a Bird RF sampler between
the K3 antenna port and antenna or dummy load.) The keying signal displays
fine, but the CW envelope doesn't. Depending on the volts/div, the display
is anywhere from a random-looking splotch of dots to the waveform you would
expect, but with gaps and holes. The only way I can display the waveform
properly is to use the software's Persist mode, which keeps all traces on
screen. Eventually, the gaps in the trace fill in and I see the waveform
displayed as it should be. But there are limitations when doing this: it's
hard to line up the waveform with the graticule to estimate time duration,
and the Velleman software Waveform Parameters page, a great feature which
displays many measured and calculated values for the waveform, shows a bunch
of question marks. Obviously, the Vellemen doesn't quite know what to make
of the composite waveform.

I mention stability of the keying signal because even when I do this test on
my old HP 1725A 275 MHz scope, the CW envelope wobbles back and forth. I'm
pretty sure this is due to the keying signal not providing a clean trigger
source. I'm planning on building a little buffer circuit for the keyer to
clean up the signal. If the HP can display a steady CW envelope, it's
possible the Velleman can. Otherwise, it may have something to do with the
sample rate being too low. at the slow sweep speed required to display the
CW envelope.

Hope this is helpful.

73, Dick WC1M


 -Original Message-
 From: Mike Walkington [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Sent: Friday, September 12, 2008 10:06 PM
 To: Elecraft-Reflector
 Subject: [Elecraft] OT - PC Oscilliscope Performance
 
 All,
 
 Just found this PC based oscilloscope
 http://www.bitscope.com/product/BS310/
 and wonder what you think of it. Yes you are limited by needing a PC,
 but
 the  waveform generator, spectrum analyser and logic analyser
 functionality
 seem to be most versatile.
 
 Mike
 VK1KCK
 K2 #2599
 


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RE: [Elecraft] K-3 Contest agc settings

[Dick Green WC1M]

 Close by stations seemed
 to overload the rx. snip...

 filters in rig 2.8, 1.8 and 250

Unless you run with WIDTH under 300, you're going to have problems with
strong signals overloading the AGC. That's what the roofing filters are for.
The 1.8 and 2.8 will allow signals you can't even hear to affect the AGC.
The 250 is fine, but you'll miss stations outside your passband responding
to your CQ. For CW contesting, you really need the 500 Hz or 400 Hz filter. 

73, Dick WC1M


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RE: [Elecraft] K3 Keying

[Dick Green WC1M]

I got in the habit of using an external keyer before most rigs had internal
keyers. As others have mentioned, external keyers are more flexible and
quicker to set than internal keyers, so I continued to use an external
keyer.

When I first got into contesting in a serious way, I found that virtually
all rigs with internal keyers had a conflict between internal and external
keying. For example, on Yaesu rigs, the paddle and external keyer input use
the same jack. The expectation is that if you use the internal keyer, a
paddle will be connected to the jack. If you use an external keyer or PC,
the hot lead will be connected to one of the two paddle inputs (usually
tip), and the internal keyer will be turned off. You can parallel the paddle
and external keyer or PC, but you can't use them together. If you have the
internal keyer off, you can key with the external keyer or PC, but not with
the paddle. If you have the internal keyer on, you can key with the paddle,
but you get gibberish if you try to key from the external keyer or PC (which
results in a keyer keying a keyer.) In the heat of a contest it's just not
feasible to switch the internal keyer on and off when you want to use the
paddle.

Of course, the K3 has solved this problem by providing two separate inputs:
one for the paddle and one for the key. Now I don't have to turn off the
internal keyer to use an external keyer, and have the option of putting a
second paddle on the K3 (I haven't done so.)

There are other ways to solve the paddle problem in contests. Some contest
programs support paddle input through the LPT port. That's one viable
solution. The better solution is to use an external contest keyer. As others
have mentioned, PC-generated CW isn't reliable on many computers due to
Windows multitasking. An external keyer solves that problem, too. I use
Writelog's W5XD+ keyer, which has paddle inputs and generates CW in response
to commands from Writelog on the PC. It also does paddle, mic, PTT and audio
switching for SO2R contesting. The keyer can also be used without Writelog
running, though with limited functionality. There's a remote speed pot and
L/R switch for selecting the rig.

It's possible to build a switch to shift the paddle between the W5XD+ keyer
and the rig (or two rigs, or three rigs...), but for me it's not worth the
trouble. The W5XD+ keyer is adequate for my needs.

73, Dick WC1M

 -Original Message-
 From: David Cutter [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Sent: Friday, September 05, 2008 1:11 PM
 To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
 Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 Keying
 
 I would be interested to know why folks use external keyers in
 preference to
 the internal keyer.
 
 David
 G3UNA
 


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[Elecraft] roofing filter questions

[Dick Green WC1M]

Hi,

 

I'm looking for articles on how the new roofing filter designs work. I've
seen the PowerPoint on Rob Sherwood's site, but it doesn't answer all my
questions.

 

Questions came up in a discussion with a friend of mine who is considering
the INRAD roofing filter mod for his Kenwood TS-950SDX. He operates almost
100% CW, and doesn't hear any IMD products. His beef is noise from stations
that are just outside the passband of his cascaded IF crystal filters. He's
hoping the roofing filter will increase the selectivity of the radio.

 

My sense is that it will help, but not by providing additional selectivity.
My understanding is that it will improve the dynamic range within the
passband by keeping the hardware AGC in the downstream IF stages from being
triggered by loud adjacent signals. Is this the correct way to think about
it?

 

My friend maintains that the roofing filter would provide selectivity as
well, but my sense is that unless it's narrower and/or has steeper skirts
than the IF filters, it won't. I believe the Kenwood roofing filter mod is
only on the order of 2K-3K wide, so the selectivity shouldn't improve.

 

Even if the roofing filter was the same or narrower than his IF filters,
would it improve selectivity? Is there an analogy with cascaded IF crystals?
Typically, a filter in the final IF stage (e.g., in the 450KHz range)
outperforms a filter in an earlier stage (e.g in the 8 MHz range.) Is this
because it's easier to make better filters at lower frequencies, or because
it's more effective to filter after any amplification by previous IF stages?

 

Obviously, I don't know squat about this.

 

73, Dick WC1M

 

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[Elecraft] band changing

[Dick Green WC1M]

I would imagine there's been some talk about the ergonomics of changing
bands on the K3. Before I add my two-cents, has Elecraft committed to any
improvements in this area?

 

73, Dick WC1M

 

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[Elecraft] K3 #857 on the air

[Dick Green WC1M]

The kit arrived Friday and I spent most of Saturday building it (after
running down to Radio Shack to get an ESD wrist-strap and anti-static mat
package -- built a lot of stuff without ever using those items, but I wasn't
going to take any chances with my new K3.) 

 

Completed and tested the 10W kit on Saturday and installed/tested the 100W
PA on Sunday. Everything is working fine so far. No problems during
construction -- panels fit fine, negligible button flex, etc. All
calibrations were successful, though I had to go the very lowest setting of
WMTR HP (10) to get the external meters (an LP-100A and a Nye RF Power
Monitor) to read 50W. Anyone else have to go that low?

 

I have a few suggestions to send to Elecraft on building the kit, but the
only important one is that maybe the KBPF3 should be installed before the PA
shield to make it easier to see the pins and sockets mating. Otherwise, the
kit is extremely well thought-out and the instructions are excellent. I
haven't had this much fun since Heath went out of business.

 

My first impression, as a long-time user and beta tester of that *other*
SDR, is that the K3 is a terrific product. The design and construction are
first-rate. With one exception (on which I'll make another post), the
ergonomics are excellent. It'll take some time to gauge the performance, but
early indications are that it's going to great. Can't wait to use this baby
in a serious contest effort.

 

73, Dick WC1M

 

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[Elecraft] RE: K3 Band Changing using Memories

[Dick Green WC1M]

Windy K5MQ wrote:

 I took the advice of one of our loyal contributors as I have copied
 below. Works wonderfully for me.
 
Ah! That's what I was looking for. I need a way to get to each band without
scrolling through all the bands because 1) it's quicker when contesting, and
2) I have a software-driven antenna switching and tuning system that follows
the rig frequency. When scrolling through bands on the K3, it unnecessarily
throws switches and sends tuning commands to my 3-stack of 4-el SteppIRs,
Acom amp, etc. Also, I didn't like having 60m included in the order (had to
patch my software to ignore that band...)

The keypad memory trick solves the problem nicely.

Personally, I find it more intuitive to load the keypad memories in the same
layout as most modern amateur rigs: 160/80/40, 30/20/17, 15/12/10. I know
that order by heart. In fact, the labels on all modern rigs are so small and
my eyes are getting so old that I don't bother to read the keys anymore -- I
know which band is which by the relative positions of the keys.

Glad I didn't shoot my mouth off. Thanks for the tip, Windy.

I have another questions about band changes, which I'll post separately.

73, Dick WC1M


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[Elecraft] K3 ham vs general band changes

[Dick Green WC1M]

The K3 manual says the Band switch scrolls through the ham bands. But if I
enter a general coverage frequency, say 11.000, it becomes the setting of
the nearest ham band. So, when I'm scrolling, I see 7.000, 11.000, 14.000,
etc. I have to re-enter 10.100 to get 30m to the right setting.

 

11.000 isn't a ham band frequency, so IMHO it shouldn't be stored in the
scrolling order for the ham bands. 

 

I think it would be an improvement to have a General Mode (On/Off) or Ham
Mode (On/Off) menu entry that can be programmed into one of the function
keys. In Ham mode, the Band switch would be limited to a configurable set of
Ham-only bands. In General mode, the Band button would be 1 MHz up or down.
If the user enters a Ham or General frequency, the mode could switch
automatically. 

 

Does this make sense?

 

73, Dick WC1M 

 

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[Elecraft] K3 #857 received

[Dick Green WC1M]

Ordered: 11/30/07

Katiegram: 4/25/08

Shipped: 4/30/08

Received: 5/2/08

 

KRX3 and KFL3A-1.8k backordered.

 

73, Dick WC1M

 

 

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[Elecraft] Katiegram received for order 11/30/07

[Dick Green WC1M]

KRX3 and KFL3A-1.8 still backordered.

 

73, Dick WC1M

 

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[Elecraft] K3 Main/Sub audio routing

[Dick Green WC1M]

If I'm reading the K3 manual correctly, there are limitations on how audio
from the Main and Sub receiver can be routed to the headphones. The way I
read it, if Sub is off, audio from the Main receiver will appear in both the
left and right headphones. If Sub is on, audio from the Main receiver will
appear in the left headphone and audio from the Sub will appear in the right
headphone. Is this correct, and are these the only audio routing options?
If so, is this something that can be changed in the firmware, or is it a
hardware limitation?

 

I ask because there are two alternative audio configurations that are highly
desirable, at least for me:

 

1. If Sub receiver audio can be routed to *both* headphones, I can utilize a
second RX-only antenna. I can connect the first RX-only antenna to RX ANT
and listen to it with the Main receiver. I can also connect a second RX-only
antenna to ANT 2 or AUX RF, route that antenna to the Sub receiver, route
Sub audio to *both* headphones, turn off the Main receiver volume, and
listen to the second RX antenna only on the Sub receiver. This configuration
takes advantage of having two identical receivers.

 

2. When chasing split DX, I like to put the DX station's audio both
headphones and the pileup in only one headphone (usually the right, if the
pileup is up.) That way, it's easier to hear the DX station when it comes
back to a caller.

 

It looks like I might be able to select alternative #1 by doing the
following:

 

1. Set CONFIG:SPKRS to 1 (force mono)

2. Set CONFIG:SPKRS+PH (enable simultaneous speakers and headphones)

 

However, the manual is not clear on two points. First, it says that
CONFIG:SPKRS=1 disables the right channel. Is that true, or does it mix the
left and right channels together so Sub audio can be heard through a mono
speaker? Second, it's not clear whether CONFIG:SPKRS+PH only enables
external speakers or also enables the internal speaker. If so, I guess a
plug could be inserted in the external speaker jack to disable the internal
speaker. This is not as simple and intuitive as flexible audio routing, but
it's better than not being able to utilize a second RX antenna.

 

Note that both alternative configurations can be selected on the Orion,
which allows audio from either receiver to be routed to either or both
headphones. It isn't practical for alternative #1 because the Orion Sub
receiver is quite inferior to the Main receiver. But it can be used for
alternative #2.

 

73, Dick WC1M

 

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[Elecraft] K3 antenna routing

[Dick Green WC1M]

In reading the manual, it seems that the Sub receiver can't use the RX ANT
unless the receive antenna is connected to both RX ANT and AUX RF with a
Y-cable, and KRX3 is set to NOR:ANT3. This allows the Sub to use the RX ANT
for diversity reception, but eliminates the ability of the Sub to use any
other antenna (such as a second receive-only antenna) for diversity
reception. Is this correct? If so, I'd suggest a future mod to make antenna
routing between the Main and Sub receivers more flexible (and less
confusing.) The Orion antenna selection matrix is a good example to follow.
Complete flexibility in antenna selection will allow the user to take full
advantage of having two identical receivers.

 

73, Dick WC1M

 

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Re: [Elecraft] Date, bugs, and features

[Dick Green WC1M]

Like W4ZV, I was a beta tester for that other SDR. Bear in mind my post of a
few weeks ago in which I cautioned about avoiding groupie-ism and holding
manufacturers to high standards. Here's my 2-cents on the subject:

 

1. I agree with W4TV that Elecraft should update the approximate delivery
dates for all backordered K3s. I'm as anxious to get mine as anyone, but I
was aware that I wouldn't be getting instant gratification when I placed the
order and was prepared to wait. The main reason I need this information is
not to relieve anxiety. I need it for planning purposes. As a busy guy with
lots of work and family demands, I have to schedule time to build my K3.
Also, my SO2R contest station is pretty complex, so I need to know whether
the K3 will be available for certain contests. It makes a difference in
terms of configuration changes I'm planning. I don't see any reason why
Elecraft can't publish a real shipping status table indicating week of order
and approximate delivery date (early month, mid month or late month),
with plenty of disclaimers. However, if they perceive something proprietary
about this information, Joe's suggestion for privately notifying those with
outstanding orders makes sense. Many companies inform customers with
backordered products when the expected ship date changes. It's a common
courtesy and an excellent business practice. Building it into Elecraft's
order process now would be a good investment for the future. The worst way
to deal with it is silence or, It's going to be later than the date we told
you -- figure it out from small bits of data gleaned from others on the
reflector.

 

2. On the Sub-RX, I'm mighty impressed with how Elecraft has informed us of
the status, including details on the issues they're addressing. I've not
seen another manufacturer of ham gear disclose so much about hardware
development (at least, not in the era of solid-state transceivers.) I
encourage Elecraft to keep doing this, despite the backlash from
disappointed customers who expected the Sub-RX sooner. Disclosure was my
main beef with the other SDR manufacturer. For example, they wouldn't tell
us when they discovered and fixed hardware problems. We never knew when a
hardware update was released, except when a repair workorder included the
mysterious updated such-and-such board. In the case of critical flaws, I
expect the manufacturer to replace/update  boards free of charge (i.e.,
issue a recall.) For performance or reliability enhancements, boards should
be replaced/updated free of charge if the unit is under warranty. If the
unit is out of warranty, the customer should be offered the opportunity to
have the board replaced/updated at a reasonable price. I would gladly have
paid for replacement boards to keep my radio up to date. But the most
important aspect is disclosure: tell us what's going on. I don't see this as
significant proprietary information that can benefit a competitor. I can
understand withholding the information until an approximate delivery date is
known, but total silence isn't acceptable. Like I said, Elecraft has done a
nice job on the Sub-RX issue and I encourage them to continue the open
discussion. It helps them far more than it hurts them.

 

3. I think it has been well-known that the K3 is a brand-new product that
will initially lack certain features listed in the spec sheet. Those who
ordered the radio last May should have understood this. I, for one, was
planning on waiting for at least one to two years before buying a K3 so the
bugs would be shaken out. I ordered a K3 sooner than planned because I've
given up on any further improvements to that other SDR I keep referring to,
and I'm willing to put up with some inconvenience to get a K3 sooner rather
than later. What pushed me over the edge was observing how Elecraft has been
handling hardware and firmware issues for the K3. I have to tell you folks
that it's *way* better than that other manufacturer.

 

4. Posting the bug/enhancement list is a tricky issue. I've been in the
software business for about 30 years, and have dealt with this as a
technician, manager, CEO and board member. There can be a lot of proprietary
information in such lists, especially planned enhancements. Further, it's
risky to set expectations of when certain bugs will be fixed or enhancements
implemented. Murphy rules the world of software development like no other
engineering domain. It's business-as-usual for unforeseen problems to be
encountered over which you have limited control, such as bugs in a compiler
from another manufacturer. Sometimes, despite the most careful design and
implementation, a bug may be so engrained in the software architecture that
it will take a major rewrite to fix it. It's not unusual for this to be
discovered only after significant time has been spent investigating the
cause, and an initially optimistic forecast for a fix has to be thrown out
the window. So, what to do? My feeling is that, at a minimum, 

[Elecraft] ALC and Band Data

[Dick Green WC1M]

Hmmm. Just looked at the back of my Orion, and in the manual, and darned if
I can't find an ALC jack. Guess Ten-Tec figured every owner would buy a
Titan :-) My FT-1000D has an ALC jack, but I've never used it. FWIW, the
manuals for my Alpha and Acom amps discourage use of ALC. I've tried to use
it on other tube amp through the years, always with poor results. I was
surprised to hear that solid-state amps require ALC. Guess I won't be buying
one of those.

 

On band data polarity, I had to laugh when I saw the posts about that. The
Orion doesn't follow the Yaesu standard, either. The Band Data jack has
individual outputs for each band, with +12VDC for the active band. All well
and good if you have positive-keyed relays, but at the time my antenna
system had mostly GND-activated relays (e.g., TopTen), and the decoded
GND-active band data was fed to a very complex homebrew antenna switching
logic interface before being passed on to the antenna relays. Also, I had
modified my TopTen Band Decoders to provide both positive and GND active
outputs, access to the TX OUT and TX INH pins, etc. So, I ended up building
a circuit to encode the Orion's individual band data outputs in
Yaesu-standard BCD for the band decoder! As I recall, it only took one IC
and a few other parts to do it. That's hardly the first interface I've build
to achieve compatibility between different pieces of equipment in my
station. I'm not saying Elecraft should have departed from the Yaesu
standard, but the more complex the station, the more we have to expect to
need some special interfaces.

 

BTW, I ditched the homebrew encoder, band decoders and homebrew logic
interface, and wrote a Windows app to get the frequency information for both
rigs from my contest logging program and send relay commands via Ethernet to
a pair of Hamation Relay Drivers. Got rid of a lot of messy wires and
interface boxes, and was able to add a lot of functionality and flexibility
(like autotuning a splittable 3-stack of SteppIRs and an Acom 2000a amp.)
One of the functions is hot switch protection via each rig's TX INH (GND to
enable), which is why I need that feature to work in the K3! As it is, I had
to build an interface box to mix several different sources of hot switch
protection (my PC-based system, a microHam StackMax, etc.)

 

Seems like the soldering iron never gets cold here.

 

73, Dick WC1M

 

 

 

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[Elecraft] more on K3 display

[Dick Green WC1M]

Not to beat a dead horse :), but I thought of another contest situation
where I need a visual status reading. Most of the time when I replace an op
at a M/S, M/2 or M/M station, I have to go over the radio with a fine
toothed-comb to reset the operating parameters back to a reasonable
baseline. You never know what the previous op might have done. It would be a
pain to have to turn a lot of knobs and push a lot of buttons to get the
status.

 

Seems to me that since this is an SDR, there could be a reasonable solution.
How about an alternate display mode for contesters? Or, perhaps there could
be a bunch of user-selectable options for what gets displayed by default and
what requires manual intervention to see.

 

73, Dick WC1M

 

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Re: [Elecraft] K3 display for contesters

[Dick Green WC1M]

Ah. I see we've both presented our operating preferences as if they reflect
those of the majority of contesters. Sorry for that.

 

There have been posts from both sides of the fence. Some ops apparently can
memorize or hear the radio's settings, and other cannot or don't want to.
Thanks to N1EU and P49Y for letting me know I'm not the only person out
there who makes mistakes with my radio. One time I switched my FT-1000D RX
ANT on to run the low bands listening to my Beverage in the wee hours of CQ
WW CW, and forgot that it was on the next morning. It sure was frustrating
trying to run 20m with that Beverage! I thought we'd had a solar flare. And
the 1000D has a little green light next to the button that I should have
noticed. Unfortunately, after 18 or 36 hours of contesting, I'm often on the
edge of being able to remember my own name, let alone the radio settings.
For me, the more prominent the display, the better.

 

The Orion does a good enough job with DSP that it isn't easy to distinguish
between 600Hz, 400Hz, or 200Hz. Sometimes I narrow the passband temporarily
to block QRM or enhance a very weak signal. Other times I shift the passband
to attenuate interference. Other times I twiddle the RIT because a station
is calling me at the edge of the passband. I can't tell just by listening
that these changes have been made (and I challenge anyone to be able to tell
that RIT has been used just by listening.) Sure, most of the time I
immediately reset to zero. In fact, Writelog zeros RIT for me when I log
each QSO. But I run SO2R and sometimes I get distracted by something
happening on the other radio. By the time I get back to the first radio, I
may have forgotten the adjustments I made a couple of minutes ago.

 

I'd appreciate it if you didn't preach to me about contesting style. I
believe my scores and standings over the past 10 years speak to that issue.
I don't adjust my radio excessively during contests. I may do it a few times
every few hours under extreme conditions. That's hardly DXing. Even if done
infrequently, a change here or there may not be the right setting for
working the next QSO, and a valuable mult may be missed because the settings
are off. SO2R contesting is very demanding of the operator's attention, and
I don't want to spend any time figuring out that I shifted the passband,
tweaked the AGC, inserted the notch, etc. I want to see the status of the
radio at a glance, either with a light, a knob position, or a field on the
display.

 

It's important to remember that SDRs are relatively new on the ham radio
scene and designers are still trying to get it right. In the old days, many
settings could be determined by the position of a knob or switch, or perhaps
a small LED. The trend today is to use multi-function buttons, knobs with
digital encoders, knobs with built-in push buttons, etc. In many cases, the
knobs and buttons don't tell you the state of that particular function. This
places greater demands on the display to show the current state of the
radio. 

 

I don't particularly like the Orion's LCD screen, but it's large and capable
of displaying any parameters determined by the firmware. If the K3 has a
weakness, it's the limited size display. It's going to take some creativity
for that display to accommodate the operating needs of a wide variety of
users. My comments were posted to help facilitate that.

 

73, Dick WC1M

 

 Message: 16

 Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2007 08:28:03 -0500

 From: DOUGLAS ZWIEBEL [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 Subject: [Elecraft] K3 display for contesters

 To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net

 Message-ID:

   [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

 

 Hi Dick and other contesters who might be potential buyers but who are

 now concerned by Dick's post:

 

 You said, but there are many parameters that need to be available

 at-a-glance: both VFO frequencies, bandwidth, shift/PBT, RIT/XIT

 power, vox, AGC, RF Gain, preamp, notch, NB, receive antenna status,

 power, etc. 

 

 Well, I think that I'm a pretty serious contester and completely

 disagree (except for the QRG of both VFO's).I am able to hear the

 different characteristics you mention.  Narrow BW sounds a lot

 different than wide.  I'll adjust it (not that I do that much) based

 on what sounds right; not by looking at a display or the numbers.

 Who cares what those are...it has to sound right.  Same with

 shift/pbt.  As for RIT/XIT, for me, the only thing that matters is if

 it is ON or OFF.  If I twiddle either, it will be for a specific QSO.

 And as soon as I'm done with that Q, I zero it by tapping the clear

 button.  If I feel that I need to twiddle it again for another Q, well

 then the offset does automatically show up (as I understand it...I

 don't have my K3's yet).  Power?  Why do you want to monitor that.

 Isn't it set it and forget it?  Vox?  Are you turning vox on and off

 during a contest?  Why?  Basically, I just do not see why these are

 important 

Re: [Elecraft] K3 display for contesters

[Dick Green WC1M]

Well, speaking as someone with an almost big-gun station, and one who has
operated from several of the biggest stations in the Northeast, with some of
the best operators on the planet, and also one who has had the rate meter up
to 350/hr in Barbados, I can tell you that knobs can and do get twiddled
during big runs on 20m. QRM is QRM, regardless of the station size, and lids
don't know how to zero beat regardless of who you are. I've seen top guns
twiddle every knob they can get their hands on to pull a weak mult out of
the mud during a big run. And big guns have to spend considerable time
SPing just like the little guys. If you don't tune, you miss many, many
mults. That's what SO2R is all about.

 

I'm offended by your insinuation about my posts. Yes, I'm an Orion owner and
I was an active beta tester of the Orion for years. I worked very hard to
help Ten-Tec track down bugs in the firmware and enhance the radio. The
reason I'm here is that ultimately Ten-Tec let the customer base down by not
fixing glaring faults in the Orion firmware and by ending the beta test
program abruptly. What started out as a revolutionary radio with fabulous
potential ended up as a sad collection of lost opportunities. Why? Because
Ten-Tec didn't listen to its beta testers and its loyal owners. We reported
many, many bugs, design flaws and ergonomic issues with the radio, many of
them fixable, and they ignored us. They also prematurely killed the resale
value of the Orion I by producing the Orion II instead of an upgrade kit for
the original radio.

 

I was delighted to see that the folks at Elecraft seized the opportunity to
take a similar SDR design to the next level. In looking over the specs, and
reading their responses on this reflector, I've seen that they're a whole
different breed from the folks we worked with at Ten-Tec. I won't hesitate
to say that I think the technical abilities are far superior at Elecraft.
I'm a 30-year veteran of the software industry, and I'm very impressed by
Wayne's abilities and even more so by his attitude. That last part is what
really stands out about Elecraft. They seem to be listening very carefully
to the feedback from their customers, and when possible they're moving
quickly and decisively to correct problems and implement enhancements.
That's great service, and should make the K3 and the company a big winner.

 

I voted with my wallet on that issue by ordering a nicely loaded K3
yesterday. So much for non-owners loyal to Ten-Tec. 

 

I placed my order despite misgivings that I'd be better off waiting for the
first wave of hardware updates to come out. I came to the conclusion that,
unlike Ten-Tec, Elecraft will keep the customer base well-informed about
updates and will make them available. That's all I really need -- a
manufacturer who is committed to all customers, not just the new ones (heck,
you can't even get an alignment manual from Ten-Tec.)

 

Let me caution the members of this reflector about something. You don't want
this valuable forum to degenerate into a manufacturer love-fest like the
Orion reflector. At times it's been difficult to raise legitimate criticisms
of the Orion without getting flamed from all sides by Ten-Tec loyalists,
many of whom have limited technical knowledge and experience. My comments
are not meant to be negative. It's very important to point out potential
errors, design flaws and usability problems in an open and honest way.
That's the only way that Elecraft can get the precious feedback they need to
establish product leadership. We should not be shy about criticizing some
aspect of the implementation if we think it's wrong. We won't be right all
the time, but that's also a valuable function of this forum: the ability of
users to debate each other on the merits of some design issue or suggestion.
That process can be a little messy, and sometimes the back-and-forth can get
testy, but like democracy the result is preferable to the alternative:
keeping everyone in the dark and being afraid to speak one's mind. Sometimes
I think people on this reflector are afraid to challenge Elecraft. My sense
so far is that Elecraft welcomes it because they're darned good engineers,
don't have a lot of ego, and are committed to making the best product they
can.

 

That's the kind of company and product I want to invest in.

 

73, Dick WC1M

 

 

 Message: 31

 Date: Sat, 01 Dec 2007 09:54:07 -0600

 From: R. Kevin Stover [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 display for contesters

 To: DOUGLAS ZWIEBEL [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 Cc: elecraft@mailman.qth.net

 Message-ID: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

 

 -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-

 Hash: SHA1

 

 Ditto that Doug,

 

 When I'm contesting with my K2 the only knob that gets twiddled is

 the

 VFO with an occasional push of XFIL. I can't imagine a big gun station

 holding sway on 20 meters moving anything on the rig. They sure don't

 have to S+P like we little 

[Elecraft] K3 display for contesters

[Dick Green WC1M]

N1EU recently posted a query about the lack of a full-time bandwidth
display. Many replied that all you have to do is turn a knob to see the
current bandwidth. Evidently, this also applies to a number of other
operating parameters, including output power(!)

 

This is all well-and-good for casual operating and DXing, but it's a real
liability for serious contesters. In a contest, the last thing I want to do
is take my hands off the keyboard. I need to be able to see certain
important transceiver setting with a quick glance in order to make a
decision whether or not to move my hands. Bandwidth is one of the settings I
need to know, and the roofing filter selection isn't sufficient -- I need to
know the ultimate selectivity provided by the DSP. I haven't had time to
study the K3 manual in depth, but there are many parameters that need to be
available at-a-glance: both VFO frequencies, bandwidth, shift/PBT, RIT/XIT
power, vox, AGC, RF Gain, preamp, notch, NB, receive antenna status, power,
etc. 

 

Basically, you need to be able to see any setting that might affect
transmission or reception. For example, if the bandwidth is too narrow, and
you don't realize it, you may not hear stations calling slightly off
frequency, or they'll be significantly attenuated. You could have a similar
effect if the notch was inadvertently left on. I can't be required to
remember the last change I made to the settings, which might have been hours
ago. Also, I use two radios and it's impossible to memorize the settings for
both of them. I can't afford to spend time twiddling knobs to determine the
current state of the transceiver.

 

Are the LCD display fields fixed, like on older displays, or are all the
pixels under firmware control? If the display is fixed, the lack of status
displays could be a real problem.

 

73, Dick WC1M

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[Elecraft] roofing filter confusion

[Dick Green WC1M]

After reading this reflector for a while, I'm confused by all the discussion
about 8-pole and 5-pole roofing filters. Or, perhaps some of you are
confused about the way roofing filters work. Here's a good article that
describes how roofing filters work and why more poles might not be better:

 

http://www.dxstore.com/download/inrad_roofing_filters.pdf

 

Some of the comments I've seen on the reflector suggest that owners are
buying narrow roofing filters with steep skirts in order to improve
selectivity. But that's not the purpose of roofing filters. Roofing filters
are there to improve third order dynamic range. They don't need very steep
skirts because ultimate selectivity is determined primarily by the IF DSP
algorithms. This is good, because compared with crystal filters, DSP filters
are able to provide steeper skirts with lower loss and little or no ringing.

 

The main problem with using narrow 8-pole roofing filters is that there's
more insertion loss, and hence less receiver sensitivity. The Orion has a
famous flaw where it switches in an amplifier to compensate for losses in
the 500 Hz and 250 Hz roofing filters, but the gain is too high and the
dynamic range goes all to heck. The K3 designers are to be applauded for
allowing the user to configure the amount of additional gain for each filter
to compensate for the loss.

 

Hopefully, variable gain will compensate for losses with no other distorting
effects. But even if it does, what's to be gained by using an 8-pole filter
in the first place? Can it be demonstrated that the 8-pole filters improve
selectivity beyond what the IF DSP does? Have tests been run to determine
specific gain settings for each filter offered by Elecraft so dynamic range
won't be compromised?

 

73, Dick WC1M

 

 

 

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[Elecraft] uh, oh -- keying loop again

[Dick Green WC1M]

 Hi Barry,

 

 We will definitely have TX inhibit as an input on the K3 AUX I/O 

 connector. Its not turned on yet, but should be shortly as we add this 

 feature to the firmware. It certainly helps for some set ups when using 

 the rign in a SO2R arrangement etc.

 

 73, Eric

 

Perhaps I was too hasty in registering approval. Another reader of the
reflector has called my attention to this section of the K3 manual:

 

TX INH (Transmit Inhibit Signal)

Pin 7 of the AUX I/O connector can be configured

as a transmit inhibit input signal by setting

CONFIG:TX INH to ON. Holding pin 7 low will

then prevent the K3 from transmitting. An external

2.2 to 10 K pull-up resistor (to 5 VDC) is required.

 

First, this is backwards. All other transceivers on the market require TX
INH (or TX ENA) to be grounded to enable transmit, not to inhibit it. This
is what the QSK amplifiers with keying loops expect. Second, it is standard
practice for the transceiver to provide the pull-up resistor and voltage.

 

In order to use this implementation with a standard QSK amplifier, the user
will have to modify the K3 or, if +5VDC isn't handy inside the K3, the user
will have to add an outboard interface with a separate power supply.
Needless to say, this will be an undesirable inconvenience for most owners.

 

The problem is that the K3 is sharing this I/O port with another function,
XVRT ON, for which the port is an output, not an input.

 

If there are no other unused ports available for this function, I'd suggest
a hardware revision with an internal slide switch to select between the TX
INH and XVRT ON functions, along with a pull-up resistor to +5VDC.

 

Meanwhile, two things would help users to get around this unfortunate
circumstance. First, Elecraft should determine if there's a handy place to
pick up +5VDC inside the chassis. If there is, they should let us know where
it is. Second, they should change the firmware to reverse the logic so that
raising the input inhibits transmit and grounding it enables transmit. That
should be simple to do. The default should be XVRT ON so that the K3 will
transmit out of the box. These steps will allow the owner to get the desired
functionality simply by connecting a pull-up resistor between the +5VDC
source and Pin 7 of the AUX I/O connected, and will avoid the owner having
to come up with a transistor inverter circuit.

 

73, Dick WC1M

 

 

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[Elecraft] (no subject)

[Dick Green WC1M]

 Hi Barry,

 

 We will definitely have TX inhibit as an input on the K3 AUX I/O 

 connector. Its not turned on yet, but should be shortly as we add this 

 feature to the firmware. It certainly helps for some set ups when using 

 the rign in a SO2R arrangement etc.

 

 73, Eric

 

Excellent! Now that's what I call a customer-oriented manufacturer.

 

73, Dick WC1M

  

 

 

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[Elecraft] Re: K3 - qsk keying loop

[Dick Green WC1M]

Pardon me for jumping in here. I don't have a K3 and don't have one on
order. I'm trying to make that decision. I've read a lot of good things
about the K3. Absence of a keying loop isn't one of them.

 

Although it's true that some modern QSK amps may appear to work fine without
a keying loop, bear in mind that both Acom and Ten-Tec recommend using them.
Elecraft should consider the recommendations of the amp manufacturers, not
what they *think* will work correctly. Even if Elecraft is right, why force
the owner of a $6,000+ amplifier to go against the manufacturer's stated
recommendation? If something goes wrong with the amp's T/R relay, causing an
expensive ship/repair/ship drama, will Elecraft indemnify the owner?
Probably not. I sure wouldn't want to get in the middle of that
finger-pointing exercise.

 

Alpha 87A owners can relax: Alpha specifically discourages use of the 87A
keying loop. That's not surprising, because the keying loop logic in that
amp doesn't work correctly. It's not a problem because the PIN diodes switch
almost instantaneously and there are no mechanical contacts to burn. You can
drive that amp all day with the PTT output line. And that's what Alpha tells
you to do.

 

Let's look a little closer. The typical Jennings and Kilovac type vacuum
relays used in QSK amps have rated switching times in the  6-8ms range. In
some designs, the relay is triggered with a burst of high voltage which
reduces the switching time to as little as 2ms. So, theoretically, there's
no danger of hot switching if the transceiver has a delay between PTT and
the start of the RF envelope of, say, 15 ms. But the problem is that you may
not know what else the amp is doing besides closing its vacuum relay. For
example, the Acom 2000a has a rather complex T/R switching sequence that
involves several relays, and the timing may be longer if the amp has to
retune. My point is that you can never be sure exactly what timing
constraints a QSK amp may impose, so it's best to follow the manufacturer's
recommendation and let the amp decide when it's safe to apply RF. In other
words, use a keying loop if the manufacturer says to.

 

In theory, relying on the transceiver to delay RF can reduce the maximum QSK
speed (i.e., compromise the ability to hear between code elements.) But
that's only true if the transceiver's delay can be reduced to less than the
amp's switching time. If the delay isn't adjustable, then the excess delay
will be present whether a keying loop is used or not. The best setup is a
keying loop with a fully configurable PTT delay. At any rate, I can't attest
to the effect of an extra 10ms or so of receiver muting at high speeds. The
QSK experts will have to comment on that.

 

A keying loop is also very desirable for preventing hot switching of antenna
relays. A TX ENA or TX INH port can be used to suppress RF before and during
any switching. It's possible to use PTT to prevent switching from taking
place, but it's not as foolproof as suppressing RF -- there are timing
windows where hot switching can occur. Also, if you use PC-based software to
do your switching, it's a heck of a lot more difficult to detect when PTT
has been closed than it is to raise TX INH. My point  is that many contest
stations, including mine, have switching systems based on the
commonly-available keying loops found on popular rigs. Why force us to give
up or modify those hard-won systems?

 

This leads me to the key question: Why not implement a standard feature that
the amateur community has come to rely on? After all, you wouldn't want to
get a reputation of ignoring such things, like a certain other US-based
manufacturer of amateur transceivers :-)

 

I think it's unfortunate that Elecraft has made the decision to omit a
keying loop. They may not have realized that the K3 is going to appeal to a
whole different breed of users than the K2, including contesters who have a
wide variety of equipment, station configurations and very demanding
requirements. Lack of this feature is going to complicate my buying
decision, for sure. But I'm always willing to resort to a mod if I have to
(Warranty? What warranty?) Is there a point in the circuit where it would be
possible to safely implement a TX INH or TX ENA function? If so, my
soldering iron is heating up. ? If not, I hope K3 will reconsider a keying
loop for the next major rev.

 

73, Dick WC1M

 

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