AmateurRadio.com

Radio equipment lends itself ideally to multimedia presentation. Manufacturers seem not to have noticed this.

Back when contemplating the purchase of a K3, I posted a brief note to the Elecraft reflector inquiring whether anyone in my local area would be willing to let me have a look-see of their K3. The two hands-on demos that resulted allowed me to see & hear how the K3 performs and was an eye opener and resulted in the K3 now sitting front and center on my desk.

Two options now have my interest: the P3 panadapter and the sub-receiver.

I know a lot of folks contemplating the purchase of a radio-related item look first to eHam product reviews (because they’re conveniently available), then to opinions of owners via various YahooGroups. Then it’s on to write-ups and reviews from QST and other magazines.

But with radio being a hobby that is better heard (and now “seen” with various panadapter displays) than read about, YouTube offers a far better method for evaluating certain aspects of equipment available within our hobby – a huge step closer to being there than any other method short of a touchy-feely session.

With that in mind, a YouTube exploratory of panadapter videos yields exactly what you would expect – signal and noise.

By far the best multimedia presentation of this topic is from WU2X/WW2DX who use a K3 to demo features of PowerSDR/IF (should really be watched full-screen here).

I found this video only after wading through numerous poorly focused, jittery camera-produced videos posted by 7wrkc and was glad not to have been dissuaded by that headache-inducing noisefest. Yep, just like eHam but multimedia…

But my point here isn’t really the P3, Elecraft or PowerSDR – first, it’s the capability that a product video allows a potential buyer.

And secondly, I found the WU2X/WW2DX video by searching for info on the P3. In other words, a keyword search can lead a buyer to the competition or a related product. That’s both good and bad, depending on your perspective. A prior search several months ago on “Elecraft QSK” led me to videos on Ten Tec products.

I’m surprised at the lack of good-quality videos that show specific capabilities of various products, particularly the new P3 or, say, the K3′s selectivity under demanding conditions. I’m sure they’ll eventually emerge but in the meantime, we seem happy to settle for the written word when so much more real-world info could be conveyed with a well-produced video.

Ten Tec does have videos on their own website but I know of no other major manufacturer who does.

And no good videos yet of the P3…

YouTube or not, videos can be a useful tool for product evaluation by potential buyers. Plus, they’re fun for window shopping as well.

If they’re done right…

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I recently posted a question to the Elecraft reflector asking (among those who have them) what might be the most efficient upgrade to a bare-bones K3 in a contesting or DXing situation. Thoughtful replies were made both to the list and to me via email.

Here is a synopsis of those replies:

Interesting question.  I have had the sub-receiver since my name came up on the list when it was available and seldom use it but I am not a hard core contester.  I also have P3 #0089 and use it all the time.  The second receiver will be most useful in contests because of diversity receive (of
use at times) but the P3 will be in use all the time if you are S&P or if you are running split so IMHO “it all depends”.

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This has been asked before, but never saw a synopsis of the results.  I have the subRX and find it very useful, but that was before the P3 was offered. 

So, since the P3 seems to be so good, I think, if I had to do it over again, I’d buy the P3 since it accurately shows both VFOs and you can scrunch into a small freq between other stations.

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In my opinion, the sub-RX is a completely useful tool.  It gives you the ability to listen on two different frequencies at the same time … running on one VFO while S&P on the other in a contest, or listening to the frequency of a DX station while looking for the guy he’s working split with the other VFO.  It also, with some limitations, gives you the ability to monitor on band for openings while working on another.  For DXing on the low bands, diversity reception is a huge advantage … and the K3 with it’s fully independent and equivalent second receiver is one of only two rigs on the market that will do that (the Flex 5000 being the other).

The P3, on the other hand, is essentially just a pretty display.  It will only display whichever band the main receiver is on (even if you have the sub-RX), and the “turn a knob then push it” mechanism for QSY is very clumsy.  The only useful thing offered by the P3 in a contest is the ability to quickly find an open frequency … everything else is just fluff.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I am also biased by my extreme disappointment that the P3 does supply buffered I/Q signals as a rear panel output.  If it did, it would make an excellent hardware front end for SDR-type software like CW Skimmer, PowerSDR, or any other application (propagation analysis, band activity analysis, etc) that will likely emerge in the future.  As it is, if you want any of those things you have to buy an LP-Pan or an SDR-IQ or similar piece of hardware in addition to the P3.  I lobbied rather hard for that capability over the last year, but Elecraft literally ignored me (and a few others who made the same request).  Very puzzling to me, since the P3 generates those signals internally anyway.

PS:
Please be aware, though, that I while I have the sub-RX I do not own a P3.  My comments are based upon published features and specs for both item, and public comments from users of the P3.  It is possible that future hardware and software add-ons to the P3 will fully address my complaints about it, but until that happens, I truly believe there is more usable functionality to the KRX3 than the P3.

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I’ve obtained both relatively recently, and my vote would be for the P3.

The P3 is quite useful for seeing the calling freq of stations in DX pileups, so in that regard it satisfies one of the functions of the sub-RX.

Unless you really need to use diversity or to monitor the audio on another frequency or band, the sub RX has limited additional utility.  It is pricy ($700 to $1000+ depending on your choice of filters) and adds considerably to the internal complexity of the K3, making service access more difficult.

But it does work well and increases the flexibility of the K3.

The P3 is eye-opening.  At a glance you can see everything happening on the band segment of your choice without touching a tuning dial.  I’ve found lots of DX with it already before it appeared on the clusters.  The display is excellent – very clear and sharp.  The functionality of the P3 will get even better as the expected hardware and firmware upgrades become available.

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I’d say the sub-rx by a long shot. For DXing, the ability to listen to *both* the DX station working split *and* his pileup at the same time is a biggie. For contesting, SO2V operation listen around the same band when CQing during slow times is an enhancement. Just seeing the blips is not as effective as hearing the calls.

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There are low cost alternatives to the P3, such as (cheapest) an 8 MHz  Softrock Lite II board or the more expensive but better integrated  LP-PAN, so that it is possible to discover how useful a panadapter is without a major financial commitment.

If a panadapter turns out to be useful, you can then later decide  whether to add the P3 or stay with the lower cost solution.

You can also use the Softrock or LP-Pan as a sub-receiver, but it’s not  nearly as well integrated as the K3′s internal sub-receiver.

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There is no comparison between the 7800 and the display of the P3 or that produced by LP Pan.   With the later 2, you have so much detail they are of use, rather than just telling if the band is open.

It depends on what kind of radio operation your undertaking.  If you a very serious DXer or Contester, I agree the sub receiver is the way to go.  If you only a casual DXer or Contester, I would pick the P3, softrock or LP Pan.

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Make my vote for the KRX3.

After living for years with a TS850 and literally wearing the label off of the TF-SET button, having the second receiver is wonderful.  Being able to listen to the DX on his frequency in one ear and the pileup on the TX frequency in the other, and being able to adjust the level of the two individually or with the “balance” control is a valuable tool for timing calls… Us little pistols with 500w and a tribander at 40 feet rely on call timing.  If I had bigger antennas, a taller tower and legal limit output, maybe the P3 would be a wash with the KRX3, but here at “Whiskey Four Little Tower”, the second receiver wins hands down. 

The second advantage of the KRX3 is diversity receive.  I often put my main receiver on my tribander and the second receiver on a vertical.  Diversity helps manage quite a lot of fade, especially those deep Asiatic Russia CW signals that travel through the Auroral Circle, always a problem here in Florida with a high angle of incidence antenna like I have at 40 feet.  You can hear which polarization is winning by listening to where the signal ends up in the stereo image (tribander on the left, vertical on the right, the winning polarization is the strongest in your head).  Some may not like this effect (I do!).

The third is being able to search for multipliers in a contest environment on the second receiver between calling CQ on the main.  This helped me do a Sweep in SS SSB for the first time in 32 years of entering the contest (I don’t use the cluster for SS).  Its kind of like “SO 1.5 R”!  You can actually listen on two different bands if you use the AUX RF input on the KRX3 and have separate antennas.

In deference to those “visual” people, especially all my Icom-owning friends, I find working split stations with my club’s IC7700 (no second receiver, but with a pan display) and Pro 2′s (hard to use Dual Watch feature) primitive compared with using my K3 with the KRX3 on the same antennas at the club.  The IC7700 is like going back to the TS-850, with me madly punching the XFC button.  At least Icom was smart and didn’t print the label on the button! Its much easier on a 7800 with its second receiver, but then you can buy two K3′s and two P3′s for the price of one of those (If you have a sturdy enough table to put it on and have two people to help you lift it out of the shipping crate as Icom recommends in the manual!!!) .

There is no substitute, in my opinion, for actually HEARING the pileup.

As much as I can appreciate the value of diversity reception, not all installations will allow it, regardless of whether or not the receiver makes it available. It’s all in the antennae – and here, that’s antenna. Singular. This is the classic case of the station not being able to fully support the rig (I think there’s a lot of that in ham radio!).

But I can almost imagine the benefit of being able to hear the DX in the left side of my headphones while tuning the sub-rx and hearing the pile-up in the right ‘phone. Much less button-pushing of the A/B switch.

But the panadapter – being able to see where band activity is – so what? I don’t see how it would do me any real, tangible good to know that in either a contest or DX situation. I’ve never come upon a pile-up and had trouble locating the DX, or vice-versa.

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It’s always a good day when that 5×7″ envelope arrives from the W5 buro. Nothing rare in this batch but some nice cards for sure.

Nice to get a card from a rare-ish country w/o first requesting it with my own card

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My XYL is all about the image, never mind the rarity or what band. This is her fav from the batch.

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Also in the mailbox was the National Contest Journal from the ARRL. I wish every day was this nice…

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Old news to anyone who has a K3 but I’m gonna write it anyway…and I’m kicking myself for not recording the whole thing. I will next time since I’m not aware of any YouTube videos specifically demonstrating the K3′s amazing selectivity and how that characteristic manifests itself in a pile-up.

Wayne Burdick N6KR recently made a posting to the Elecraft reflector on how he goes about DXing on CW with his K3 and P3 panadapter. I’m pretty bare bones here – just the 100W final and a 400 Hz filter. Not sure what I may eventually add to mine as it seems perfectly suited to the task I use it for as is, but who knows…

A few hours ago, Tom 9X0TL (Rwanda) was working through one of those unending pile-ups his callsign generates on 20 meters. I’ve seen him spotted before, but never at a time when I could get on the air. He was fairly weak but solid copy with slow QSB. And you know how unruly big pile-ups can be with 1 or 2 lids always calling the DX on his transmit freq, then the 5 or 6 “helpful” ops sending “up, up” over and over.

Being a new K3 owner, I still like to compare what I can do now to what I had to settle for pre-K3, in terms of selectivity. “Selectivity” in this case means QRM/lid elimination. Pre-K3, I had 500 Hz as my narrowest option so that’s what I initially dialed the K3 down to as I went after the 9X. There were the on-frequency callers and the UP’ers along with Tom on his transmit freq. Mental selectivity, of course, is used to separate  the DX from the masses in these cases.

And that’s how it went in the old days.

But this ain’t the old days, so I dialed selectivity down to 100 Hz and then on down to 50 Hz. And magically, no more QRM, because even though we say “on freq” to describe where the non-split lids callers are, they aren’t (and rarely are) exactly zero beat with the DX. They’re maybe 150…200 Hz away – a distance that I did indeed once consider “on freq” but not anymore. With a 50Hz bandwidth dialed in, I’m happily deaf to and unaffected by what’s going on in Lidville.

As an added bonus, the 9X was noticeably more copy-able with a better signal to noise ratio with no ringing that a 50Hz bandwidth would cause in any other rig I know of.

So 9X0TL goes into the log as #263, an all-time new one, already confirmed in his online log.

Incidentally, Tom was using a K3 as well.

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I think Silvano I2YSB is more responsible than any other single person for enabling me to add new countries to my logbook. As Martha Stewart would say, “That’s a good thing”.

A retired Italian Air Force officer, Silvano’s niche in ham radio is traveling around the planet and activating rare countries for folks like me (and you?!).

Somalia, Niger and Tokelau are in my log on several bands courtesy of the strong signals and excellent ops on these DXpeditions.

In about 6 weeks, I hope Silvano’s next DXpedition will help me to finally work Togo for real. Almost exactly 10 years ago, I “worked” 5V7VJ on 30 meters – or so I thought. No QSL ever came and an email inquiry brought those dreaded words: Not in log.

From October 10-23, 5V7TT will be on the air with seven DXpedition-experienced ops, three K3′s, and a good assemblage of aluminum. Me, I’ll be energizing my dipole for all it’s worth.

See you in the pile-ups…..

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An otherwise busy Saturday allowed me a few minutes to get on the air today and I was greeted with amazing conditions.

Not many stations were on 15m but those that were, were DX and different parts of the world were copyable at the same time.

I listened to the two strongest and was surprised upon their ID’ing that it was a Spanish station (EA5DWS) and a New Zealander (ZL1BYZ) in QSO with each other, both 589 here in Houston. I’d recently worked the ZL so I called EA5DWS for a quick exchange of reports. I think we both wanted to maximize our use of these conditions while they lasted.

Then in quick succession, FO/N6JA (French Polynesia), PY2GH (Brazil), CE200BC (Chile) and PY2TIM (Brazil). Then QSY’ed to 17m and worked EA2IF (Spain)and S58N (Slovenia).

Kind of reminds me of the good ole days of the solar peaks, but with one exception: even during those times, it’s seldom to hear opposite sides of the planet coming in strongly, simultaneously, on the higher bands.

A check of SpaceWeather.com offers the likely reason and recommends northern lattitude observers be on the lookout for auroral displays.

K3PG made use of these conditions today with some good DX contacts while QRP portable.

Hopefully such conditions will continue through the weekend.

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On another topic, my ATS3 is still for sale. Who woulda thunk it – I was certain that would have been the first item to sell…..

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Some years ago, G4ZFE wrote and made freely available a handy Java-based log search applet. It was (and is) put to good use by DXpeditions so that those who’ve worked them can confirm that they made it into the log. This avoids unnecessary “insurance QSOs” allowing others to more easily work the DX station.

Non-DX stations also use it for a variety of reasons including as a way of accessing the logbook from a remote location.

The latest version is available here but no longer includes date and time of QSO – only callsign and band. I can understand various reasons one may have for not wanting to make date/time of on the air activity freely available but for my purposes I prefer this info and have reverted to an older version of the applet.

And, after much procrastination, have updated my online log search page located under the Various tab in the upper-right of your monitor. Or here.

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Being offered for sale to finance this new (for me) type of kit whose purchase I don’t want to be out of pocket…besides, if I haven’t built them yet it’s time to admit that I ain’t gonna.

Complete and in original packages – prices include shipping to US:

KD1JV ATS-3 ($165) Still available…

KD1JV ATS-3B ($200) SOLD

Rotary encoder for ATS-series kits ($35) SOLD

KB9YIG SoftRock RX Ensemble ($60) – SOLD I think this is what is being referred to as the Ensemble II on Tony’s website although the circuit board only says Ensemble. The board is dated 5/03/2010 and the kit was sent to me June 5, 2010 so this is most likely the latest version.

Norcal FCC-1 ($40) SOLD

Please email me first to ensure any kit you’re interested in hasn’t yet been spoken for. Check or money order only, por favor.

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While researching the various QRSS “grabbers” that are online as I tinker with my 100 mW beacon, I happened across Murray ZL1BPU’s website and read quite a bit of info that I don’t believe is available elsewhere – at least not in one place.

Of particular interest (to me) is CMSK described as “sophisticated high performance narrow-band DX system”.

If you tire of whatever mode you currently operate and feel like testing the waters of another method of modulating your RF, have a look-see at Murray’s site.

Helluva hobby we’ve got here, ain’t it…..

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Back in The Day, RCA put out a short series of articles called Ham Tips which, unsurprisingly, made use of RCA products.

Original issues turn up on eBay and at hamfests from time to time but N4TRB has 90 issues online as pdf files online, encompassing the years from 1938-1970. Interesting reading of a bygone era.

Of particular interest is the Volume 13 Number 1 issue which has a write-up of RCA’s George Rose K2AH describing his single transistor 2m transmitter. This was the first solid state transmitter in amateur radio. More detail of this event can be found here.

Portable operating aficionados will want to check out Volume 19 Number 1 for info on how to build a transceiver that only weighs 15 pounds or so. Put that on your goat, Steve!

Not to be outdone, GE similarly had Ham News. They are also available 1946-1963 courtesy of N4TRB. The last issue is an 82-page compendium of more excellent, nostalgic reading.

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I finished putting together G0UPL’s QRSS beacon transmitter today and it seems to be working fine. Tomorrow I’ll have to dig up a 6V wall wart to power it but for now am using 4 AAA batteries just to make sure it’s putting out a signal with my callsign embedded.

With those batteries, it puts out a maximum of 150 mW which I’ll back down to 100 mW once I start putting it on the air. Initial tests show it doing what it’s supposed to do based on the display presented by antenna-less K3 feeding its received audio into Argo. Freq measurement of 10.140.048 is read with my MFJ-259 – not sure how much faith I should put into that gadget as a freq counter. Probably not much but we’ll see.

It’s not housed yet but will be going into a clear-top tin from the 4S-QRP Group (which has been looking for a worthy tenant).

UPDATES:

Well that didn’t take long & it appears the freq counter function of the MFJ is quite accurate after all. Here’s my presentation at 0130Z as received by W4HBK in Pensacola FL. I’m not sure why the key down representation is inverted (above) as received here at my QTH but not when received elsewhere:

With a solid presence at 100 mW, I dialed the power down to 40 mW. Not sure if the shift upward in freq is due to me making the adjustment or the fact that less internal heat is generated within the transmitter’s components at the lower power. I suspect the latter since the drift occurs slowly over several minutes:

BTW, this is QRSS6 (6-second dots).

The next morning as received by KL1X/5:

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Larry W2LJ recently wrote about his – here’s mine, short & sweet.

Mainly, I want to wrap up some loose ends. Finish things that have been too long on the back burner.

• Completing 5B-WAS on CW. Missing band/states are on their own page here, (under the “Various” tab, above)- I’ll update it & keep it current as various states make it into the log.

 

• I’d also like to operate one of the big DX contests from a DX location that’s just a little rare. Nothing extravagant or too expensive…I’m thinking Guyana (8R). A few ideas of places elsewhere are here. 

 

• I’d also like to be a guest op at a super station. You know – one of those with a full size 4-element Yagi on 160 meters. Well, okay – a 4-square. And a kilowatt or three. W0UN is moving to Texas – maybe he’ll invite me over for CQWW…

 And, as Bubba said to Forest, “That…that…that’s about iyut.”

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Les Kerr, developer of MorseKOB

I tend toward nostalgia anyway, but put an interesting book in front of me of a topic to which I can relate and its easy to get caught up in the moment.

In this case, the moment occurred a century ago and the book was my recently-reviewed “The Victorian Internet”. Thanks to that book and the ponder-worthy images & anecdotes described within its pages, I find myself seeking further info on such myriad topics as gutta percha, Cyrus Field, the Great Eastern and others.

This post simply serves as a method to share the info I’ve found that is most interesting to me and may be with others as well.

The most exhaustive website dealing with everything telegraphic between the US and Europe is here. Hours can be spent on this site – a truly incredible amount of work and research went into it. If you don’t think you’d be interested in this particular topic, take a look at the website anyway. You may well become interested.

Various posters capturing the mood of that era.

Traffic capacity of various submarine cables, 1858-2007.

The Morse Telegraph Club doesn’t limit its scope to the audio tones of our familiar CW of radiotelegraphy but offers the opportunity to learn/practice the clackety-clack of landline Morse online with other operators around the world. Fifteen letters of the alphabet in American Morse are the same as those you already know. The letters C, O, R, Y and Z have internal spacing between elements.

MorseKOB is a program found here that allows the use of a computer to simulate the sounds of a telegraph sounder, for both solo practice and to be able to communicate with others over the internet. Terminology of those communicating with each other takes the form of the old landline days. No ham call letters and the circuits in use are called wires rather than computer ports. Instrctions are included on hooking up your straight key or bug to your computer.

Here’s a video of American Morse at 27 wpm on a sounder:

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If you’re a CW afficianado and the bands are dead, opportunities exist to get on the wire and re-enact a bit of history with an unseen accomplice…

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This was the first contest I’ve been able to participate in since getting the K3 in April and I’ve been waiting for just such conditions – crowded bands, numerous stations calling simultaneously, QRN, etc – to really see how the K3 performs.

I spent spent time both contesting and just tweaking with the K3.

First, the contest itself:

As my interest in contesting grows, this particular one is emerging as my favorite. I like the CQWW, ARRL DX contests, and others, but lack the ability or interest to hang in front of the radio for 48 hours of continuous dots & dashes. I mainly like them for the new band-countries they offer and the practice in pile-ups when the rare ones appear. But the 10-hour limit in the NAQP’s is a snap as long as “local conditions” don’t interfere…

As I’ve always used contests before as nothing more than an opportunity to get new ones, I’ve only engaged in search & pounce type operating, never caring about a final score. But this time, after a few hours S&P, I set up the F-keys to call CQ and respond with those answering. What a rush! A small handful of times, I made an idiot out of myself by hitting the wrong F-key to respond to a caller and ended up thanking him for the QSO before even giving him the exchange. A quick recovery though & things proceeded.

I was amazed at the skill of many of the ops, one in particular. While still in S&P mode, I worked a station whose call was familiar to me for a reason a couldn’t remember. After working him, I stayed on freq and listened to him for a while, noting the efficiency of how he logged QSOs at high speed. I plugged his call into QRZ.com and saw the impressive bio of K0DXC. Cal is 15 years old and, has been on the air since he was 10 and is a pro at the key. The dude was flat-out smokin’ – not just fast, but efficient as well…rackin’ em up.

Cal has his own website with various articles & photos. Check out this YouTube video:

Further into the contest, I was lucky enough to be able to work fellow-blogger Scot KA3DRR who was booming in from California and QRP op John K3WWP in Pennsylvania.

About the K3:

I’m pretty much convinced that any comparison of the K3 with another rig should be done under contest conditions. If not, the K3′s abilities, while being apparent, won’t jump out and slap you upside the head. But under contest conditions…a whole different story.

To my mind, there are two huge benefits to this rig to anything I’ve used before: QSK and the receiver’s selectivity.

I know that QSK isn’t unique to Elecraft but that characteristic of the K3 benefitted me greatly. Being able to hear another station answering a CQing station as I was also calling allowed me to extend the length of my call (by calling again via a tap of the keyboard) and be heard alone, QRM-free at the caller’s receiver. Also, there were several times that I answered a CQ’er a millisec before his CQ ended. I could hear between my own dits that his CQ ended only in time for him to hear the last part of my call. Without QSK, I wouldn’t have been aware of when he went back to receive and he would have responded with “5X?”. Knowing that he couldn’t have copied the “AE”, I could just send my call again once I knew he was finished transmitting. A minute detail, but it saved time and avoided a more lengthy repeat.

But the real benefit of the K3 is unmatched by any other rig. At least that’s what I’ve heard & now I’m a believer. I’m talking about the ability to listen to a razor-thin portion of the spectrum 50 Hz wide with no ringing. A super-narrow slice of clarity with a war of QRM raging on both sides. It was a joy to listen to a crowded portion of 20m with several stations simultaneously heard at 500 Hz – a bandwidth that I used to think of as narrow – and then dial down, down, down to 100 or 50 Hz and have only one station to deal with.

My MO at this narrow range was to place the VFO in Fine resolution tuning mode and slowly walk up the dial, hearing one station emerge at a time. Work ‘em and tune, work ‘em and tune. One at a time – no QRM. There were times that I thought the activity must have tapered off since I seemed to have the band and the stations I worked almost to myself but opening the selectivity back up to 500 Hz quickly revealed the sea of QRM, above and below.

I guess you could say that I’m now invested in the K3. I hate to bang the same old drum but…dayum! Now I’m suffering post-contest blues, anxiously awaiting whatever’s next.

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Susan Meckley W7KFI is a 74-year old great-grandmother who has been solo sailing around the Pacific for several years now and sending dots and dashes along the way.

She has finished recuperating in Hawaii from a car-bicycle accident – she was the one on the bike…After her engine repair, and the hurricane season, her plan is to set sail to Johnston Atoll (KH3) and then parts west on the USSV Dharma.

Current info on her travels is hard to decipher due to being undated – I don’t know if whatever paragraph I’m reading is current or 3 years old. Try your hand at it on both QRZ.com and her own website.

But from recent postings to the Elecraft reflector, here’s some current info: she operates a K3 periodically on 14.028  and 14.236 MHz and will continue to do so after she gets underway. Ultimate destination is Phuket Thailand.

An ex-Navy CW op, proficiency on the key ain’t an issue.

Although a couple years old now, here’s an interview with Susan conducted by Art Bell W6OBB on 40 meters while Susan was a couple hundred miles from Hawaii:

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