[ADXA] 3y0k 80m info

[Jussi Eloranta]

On 3/8/26 7:07 AM, w5znjoel at gmail.com wrote:

> Most hams do not understand diversity reception. They believe you just throw
> out two antennas connected to a receiver and you're good to go. That could
> not be further from the truth! I know you are aware of the difference so for
> the benefit of others I'll briefly explain.

Yes, I have my RX&TX antennas on ANT1 - ANT3 and RX only antennas on RX1 
and RX2 on my K4D. Diversity receive REQUIRES to phase locked RXs.

On traditional modes I understand how things work but for digital 
modes... K4 puts one RX to left stereo channel and the other to the 
right stereo channel (headphones). But wsjtx will only take mono input. 
I think K4D combines the two into one mono channel at the audio level? 
So, if I set (on the computer) the audio input to mono, the K4D will mix 
the signals from the two RXs? For this to be successful, the audio 
streams must be in sync (this is where the locking of the receivers 
becomes important). Is this correct?

One interesting idea would be to combine the two audio channels with 
suitable delay so one could do noise canceling (?) This can be done on 
the computer. Fortunately, I don't have to worry about that sort of 
thing here in the sticks.

As for K3 with dual receivers, I think that the signal combining happens 
at the RF level? If so, this would be different from the K4 where this 
takes place at the audio level (see above)? I don't have 2nd RX on my K3 
so I have not played with this on that rig.

So, Joel - please correct whatever mistakes I made above :-)

Jussi (aa6kj)


> \
> It is my standard operating procedure on 160 meters to ALWAYS us diversity
> receive. The BSEF-8 vertical array is always on RX1 and the HiZ-8 on RX 2. I
> have the ability to switch either receiver to either the YCCC-9 or Beverage
> antennas if needed.
>
> During diversity receive, RX1 will be in one ear and RX 2 in the other and
> you can hear the amazing "bouncing around" of the signals in strength in one
> ear versus the other. At times one will fade just so briefly to miss a
> character or more on CW but the other ear still has the sig. Will it also
> help on FT8? The short answer is yes.
>
> There is one caveat regarding diversity receive, just like having a high-end
> RX antenna and that is it will NOT create propagation! You must still have
> propagation path at some level to establish or sustain communications.
>
> 73 Joel W5ZN
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net <adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On Behalf
> Of Jussi Eloranta
> Sent: Saturday, March 7, 2026 3:26 PM
> To: 'ADXA' <adxa at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: [ADXA] 3y0k 80m info
>
> I worked 3y0k last night on 80m around their sun rise (about 0530Z).
> There was nothing before that and the signal came up nicely for about 20 min
> and then was gone. So, in addition to possible early evening opening to
> Bouvet, be sure to also check out their sun rise.
>
> I was also testing two receiving antennas, the inv L (which I use also for
> transmitting) and beverage on ground directed towards Bouvet (200 ft long
> with 320 ohm termination resistor, no impedance transformer). Both antennas
> were able to hear 3y0k with both showing deep QSB. But when one antenna
> faded away, the other one seemed to be coming up. I wonder if some sort of
> diversity set up would be beneficial here - to be tested.
>
> Jussi (aa6kj)
>
>
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