Re: [Elecraft] K3 6M operation
The PRE icon pertains only to the K3's internal preamp. I suggest turning it off in most cases when you're using the PR6. Otherwise you'll have more gain than necessary, possibly degrading dynamic range. (With the PR6 on -- giving you an MDS of about -144 dBm -- turning on the internal preamp would provide only a small fraction of a dB improvement.) To turn the PR6 itself on, you need to turn on the RX ANT path (which you have done), but you also have to power the preamp. You can leave it powered all the time (via a jumper block, if I'm remembering correctly), or (preferably) turn it on/off using the DIGOUT1 signal on the 15-pin accessory jack. The PR6 manual should cover all of this. 73, Wayne N6KR On Dec 4, 2009, at 10:32 AM, Mike wrote: No one knows? Mike wrote: I installed the PR6, hooked up to the control line. I set up the CONFIG menu. When I put the rig on 6M, and tap RX ANT to turn on the PR6, the display shows RX and PRE. Is the other preamp engaged at the same time? The PRE on the LCD can be toggled by tapping the PRE button. 73, Mike NF4L __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] K3 6M operation
Hi Mike, The PRE setting is already stored separately in the RX ANT on and off cases, on a per-band basis. (This is also the case for the K2.) 73, Wayne N6KR On Dec 4, 2009, at 10:56 AM, Mike wrote: Thanks Wayne - Is there a way to disconnect the internal preamp from the RX ANT button, so that tapping the RX ANT button doesn't turn on the internal preamp? Mike Wayne Burdick wrote: The PRE icon pertains only to the K3's internal preamp. I suggest turning it off in most cases when you're using the PR6. Otherwise you'll have more gain than necessary, possibly degrading dynamic range. (With the PR6 on -- giving you an MDS of about -144 dBm -- turning on the internal preamp would provide only a small fraction of a dB improvement.) To turn the PR6 itself on, you need to turn on the RX ANT path (which you have done), but you also have to power the preamp. You can leave it powered all the time (via a jumper block, if I'm remembering correctly), or (preferably) turn it on/off using the DIGOUT1 signal on the 15-pin accessory jack. The PR6 manual should cover all of this. 73, Wayne N6KR On Dec 4, 2009, at 10:32 AM, Mike wrote: No one knows? Mike wrote: I installed the PR6, hooked up to the control line. I set up the CONFIG menu. When I put the rig on 6M, and tap RX ANT to turn on the PR6, the display shows RX and PRE. Is the other preamp engaged at the same time? The PRE on the LCD can be toggled by tapping the PRE button. 73, Mike NF4L __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] K3 6M operation
Just push the PRE button while RX ANT is enabled. That toggles it on/off for the RX ANT path. It is remembered separately for this path. 73, Eric Mike wrote: Thanks Wayne - Is there a way to disconnect the internal preamp from the RX ANT button, so that tapping the RX ANT button doesn't turn on the internal preamp? Mike Wayne Burdick wrote: The PRE icon pertains only to the K3's internal preamp. I suggest turning it off in most cases when you're using the PR6. Otherwise you'll have more gain than necessary, possibly degrading dynamic range. (With the PR6 on -- giving you an MDS of about -144 dBm -- turning on the internal preamp would provide only a small fraction of a dB improvement.) To turn the PR6 itself on, you need to turn on the RX ANT path (which you have done), but you also have to power the preamp. You can leave it powered all the time (via a jumper block, if I'm remembering correctly), or (preferably) turn it on/off using the DIGOUT1 signal on the 15-pin accessory jack. The PR6 manual should cover all of this. 73, Wayne N6KR __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] K3 6M operation
OK! Thanks again Wayne. 74, Mike NF4L Wayne Burdick wrote: Hi Mike, The PRE setting is already stored separately in the RX ANT on and off cases, on a per-band basis. (This is also the case for the K2.) 73, Wayne N6KR On Dec 4, 2009, at 10:56 AM, Mike wrote: Thanks Wayne - Is there a way to disconnect the internal preamp from the RX ANT button, so that tapping the RX ANT button doesn't turn on the internal preamp? Mike Wayne Burdick wrote: The PRE icon pertains only to the K3's internal preamp. I suggest turning it off in most cases when you're using the PR6. Otherwise you'll have more gain than necessary, possibly degrading dynamic range. (With the PR6 on -- giving you an MDS of about -144 dBm -- turning on the internal preamp would provide only a small fraction of a dB improvement.) To turn the PR6 itself on, you need to turn on the RX ANT path (which you have done), but you also have to power the preamp. You can leave it powered all the time (via a jumper block, if I'm remembering correctly), or (preferably) turn it on/off using the DIGOUT1 signal on the 15-pin accessory jack. The PR6 manual should cover all of this. 73, Wayne N6KR On Dec 4, 2009, at 10:32 AM, Mike wrote: No one knows? Mike wrote: I installed the PR6, hooked up to the control line. I set up the CONFIG menu. When I put the rig on 6M, and tap RX ANT to turn on the PR6, the display shows RX and PRE. Is the other preamp engaged at the same time? The PRE on the LCD can be toggled by tapping the PRE button. 73, Mike NF4L __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] K3 6M operation
Thanks Mike - My questions have been amply and fully answered, except why turning on the PR6 turned on the internal preamp as well. But since I now know how to prevent that, all is good. 73, Mike(2) NF4L Mike Harris wrote: G'day Mike, Control of the K3 internal pre-amp is independent of the PR6. That is you can have neither, either or both. You should be able to hear the difference. RX ANT will switch the PR6 and PRE will switch the K3 internal pre-amp. If you are switching the PR6 using the CONFIG DIGOUT 1 setting note that you have to enable it for each ANT if you have a KAT3 installed. You might not always use the same antenna port for 6M. This wasn't mentioned in the PR6 paperwork and I had a deaf moment until I figured that one out. You can select CONFIG: DIGOUT 1 and toggle the ANT to check that both are On. I trust that answers your question. Regards, Mike VP8NO - Original Message - From: Mike n...@nf4l.com To: Elecraft Elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent: Friday, December 04, 2009 3:32 PM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 6M operation No one knows? Mike wrote: I installed the PR6, hooked up to the control line. I set up the CONFIG menu. When I put the rig on 6M, and tap RX ANT to turn on the PR6, the display shows RX and PRE. Is the other preamp engaged at the same time? The PRE on the LCD can be toggled by tapping the PRE button. 73, Mike NF4L __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] K3 6M operation
I installed the PR6, hooked up to the control line. I set up the CONFIG menu. When I put the rig on 6M, and tap RX ANT to turn on the PR6, the display shows RX and PRE. Is the other preamp engaged at the same time? The PRE on the LCD can be toggled by tapping the PRE button. 73, Mike NF4L __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] K3 6M operation
G'day, 6M configuration: 5el Yagi at 50 feet, approx 150 feet of Ecoflex 10 coax 1.5-2dB loss. K3 with PR6. Antenna pointing north over the harbour and open country, no S-meter reading but upon removal the antenna RX noise fell by 8-9dB as displayed by the K3 dBV. (PRE and PR6 on, 400Hz bandwidth). It is not always so quiet. Monitoring beacon LU5EGY in Buenos Aires, approx 1900km distant. In order of improving copy: PrePR6 Copy N N Nil Y N ESP Copied call with difficulty N Y ESP+ Copied call easily Y Y Easy copy I tried the effect of NR with a setting of F1-2 and it was very interesting. If the signal is very week then enabling NR extinguished the CWT marker and nothing was heard. Only when the CWT marker remained did NR have any noticeable effect on the signal. In the above cascade of tests enabling NR resulted in a significant improvement in ease of copy (quiet background) when both PRE and PR6 were on. Further it was interesting to note that for me 400Hz BW was not the best copy. Reducing BW to 50-150Hz (500Hz roofing) or increasing to 600-700Hz (2k7 roofing) was certainly much easier to listen to. With the wider BW the residual noise was certainly less harsh/granular, more smooth/rounded sounding. Sidetone frequency 600Hz. Tuesday evening I had a QSL with a station in BA who was running 1W to a simple wire antenna and was S9. I reduced output to 1W and was also copied OK. I hope this is of some use. Regards, Mike VP8NO - Original Message - From: Mike n...@nf4l.com To: rfenab...@gmail.com Cc: Elecraft Elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 8:48 PM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 6M operation I've got the preamp, but my antennae have been on the ground since I got the K3. Going back up this weekend, and I'd definitely like to hear what people have to say about it, so I'd appreciate the discussion being held on the reflector. 73, Mike NF4L rfenab...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, Well I just completed my first 6M contest this past weekend and found it quite good. There was some time ago a lot of comments on the K3's sensitivity on 6M. The result was Elecraft produced a pre-amp and not much comment has been seen since. If anyone on the list is a 6m operator with a pre-amp it would be good if they could contact me off list and let me know what they think of running with or without the pre-amp... I don't wish to clog the reflector with this topic. Regards Gary VK4WT Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] K3 6M operation
On Wed, 2 Dec 2009 13:58:39 -0300, Mike Harris mike.har...@cwimail.fk wrote: G'day, 6M configuration: 5el Yagi at 50 feet, approx 150 feet of Ecoflex 10 coax 1.5-2dB loss. K3 with PR6. 5 ele M2 Yagi at 50 ft, 70 ft of LMR600 coax 0.38 db loss. K3 with PR6. Antenna pointing north over the harbour and open country, no S-meter reading but upon removal the antenna RX noise fell by 8-9dB as displayed by the K3 dBV. (PRE and PR6 on, 400Hz bandwidth). It is not always so quiet. Monitoring beacon LU5EGY in Buenos Aires, approx 1900km distant. In order of improving copy: PrePR6 Copy N N Nil Y N ESP Copied call with difficulty N Y ESP+ Copied call easily Y Y Easy copy [snip] Mike, I haven't done the extensive testing you did, but your findings parallel my experiences with the PR6. I wish my 2m and 70cm preamp's were as good as the PR6. 73, Tom, N5GE n...@n5ge.com K3 #806 with SUB RX, K3 #1055, PR6, XV144, XV432, KRC2, W1, 2 W2's and other small kits 1 K144XV on order http://www.n5ge.com http://www.swotrc.net __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] K3 6M operation
Hi Gary, You DEFINITELY need to use a high gain low noise external preamp if you are interested in any weak signal work on 6m. If all you are interested in doing on 6m is woring strong Es or TE signals, then you can obviously get by without it. In fact, you will probably be thrilled to be able to work everyone you can copy ;-) But the noise figure of the K3 on 6m is over 13 dB, so you will benefit greatly by adding a receive preamplifier. The one offered by Elecraft is a great unit, and is what I use when operating portable during 6m EME DXpeditions. GL and VY 73, Lance Hi, Well I just completed my first 6M contest this past weekend and found it quite good. There was some time ago a lot of comments on the K3's sensitivity on 6M. The result was Elecraft produced a pre-amp and not much comment has been seen since. If anyone on the list is a 6m operator with a pre-amp it would be good if they could contact me off list and let me know what they think of running with or without the pre-amp... I don't wish to clog the reflector with this topic. Regards Gary VK4WT Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html -- Lance Collister, W7GJ (ex: WN3GPL, WA3GPL, WA1JXN, WA1JXN/C6A, ZF2OC/ZF8, E51SIX) P.O. Box 73 Frenchtown, MT 59834 USA QTH: DN27UB TEL: (406) 626-5728 URL: http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj 2m DXCC #11, 6m DXCC #815 Interested in 6m EME? Ask me about subscribing to the Magic Band EME email! __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] K3 6M operation
On Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:23:22 +, Lance Collister wrote: You DEFINITELY need to use a high gain low noise external preamp if you are interested in any weak signal work on 6m. Because this is a general interest topic, I'm responding to the reflector. YES, unless you live in a really noisy QTH, you definitely need an external preamp on 6M. Since I'm an OT on that band, I already owned an ARR GaSFET preamp, and simply plugged it into the RXOUT/RXIN patch point. It works quite well, and I'm sure that the preamp that Elecraft sells does too. 73, Jim K9YC __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] K3 6M operation
I've got the preamp, but my antennae have been on the ground since I got the K3. Going back up this weekend, and I'd definitely like to hear what people have to say about it, so I'd appreciate the discussion being held on the reflector. 73, Mike NF4L rfenab...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, Well I just completed my first 6M contest this past weekend and found it quite good. There was some time ago a lot of comments on the K3's sensitivity on 6M. The result was Elecraft produced a pre-amp and not much comment has been seen since. If anyone on the list is a 6m operator with a pre-amp it would be good if they could contact me off list and let me know what they think of running with or without the pre-amp... I don't wish to clog the reflector with this topic. Regards Gary VK4WT Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
