Wow, what a weekend. I dabbled off & on in the SS 'test. Got to listen to my 3 rigs and compare them head to head under tough conditions. After extensive listening with all 3, the K2 has emerged as the clear winner in the group. It stood head & shoulders above the other two in the way it handled the crowded / loud band conditions. 830s. I spent a couple of hours with this rig. Mine has both 500 Hz IF filters for the "ultimate" in selectivity. Tuning across 40 meters there were many signals S9 and above. With the 830s set for it's most narrow selectivity, I could typically hear 2 or more signals at the same time. I could obviously copy the one that was centered, but I'd hear the bleeps of other signals that reminded me there was a powerhouse just a few hundred Hz away. The rig was also producing a lot of thumping in the headphones. Background noise level was annoyingly high all the time. The AGC made sure that the static would rise to the level of the signal. All in all, it helped to generate a sense of urgency in me as it was clear that I was in a crowded noisy band and needed to really concentrate to work the weaker stations. 2B - What a sweet receiver, but ... it was overpowered by the conditions. With the IF filter set to 500 Hz and the Q-multiplier on the verge of feeding back, I could get some very (very, very) nice sounding CW but there were always a couple of signals in there with the one I wanted, creating QRM and affecting the AGC. As I tuned around the area above the CW "party" I heard some general grunge in the RX. I believe it was generated by having so many strong signals just 10 KHz down the band. Weak signals were tough to hear / copy. K2 - Hey, what happened to the band? Background noise was much lower. Signals were suddenly spread out with space between them. The thumping noises went away, weak ones were easily copied next to strong ones. The K2 handled the weekend activities with grace and style. Selectivity exceeded that achieved by the 830s with twin filters. There was no grunge or funny artifacts, just clean CW nicely spaced across the band. I never had an issue with QRM or listener fatigue due to background noise with this rig. - Keith KD1E - - K2 5411 - _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
