[Elecraft] K2 and the ARRL 160m Contest

[Jim Brown]

On Sun, 7 Dec 2003 13:43:59 -0800, Earl W Cunningham wrote:

>Condx were not the best to the east coast from here during the ARRL
>160-meter contest. 

The curtain for me was the Rockies. I managed to work several guys with
good ears in AZ, and UT. I used an Omni V.9 Friday night and part of
Saturday night, then finished it off with the K2/100 after about 0300Z
Sunday.  Antenna was improvised -- I fed the coax for my 80/40 dipole
as a long wire using the dipole as a capacitive hat. I heard you and
called you, as well as N6RO and a couple of other CA, OR, and WA
stations, but couldn't raise anyone with my mediocre antenna. 

Comparison:  

The receivers are both quite good in terms of strong signal
performance. The nearest active contester to me was about three miles.
Don't know what power or antenna he was running, but both rcvrs let me
work withing 1-2 kHz. 

The filter switching in the Omni V (mine is loaded with filters) is far
more convenient.  The sequenced switching of the K2 is something that
only a programmer (and front panel layout guy) could love. I would like
a better way. This would be a good use for the PF keys.  

I have come to the conclusion though that the K2/100 is awfully close
to
the Omni V for QSK. It takes a better ear than mine to hear a
significant difference.  

There was some nasty noise centered around 1838 kHz that neither
radio's NB was able to touch. It sounded like it was more a combination
of AM and FM where the modulation was some sort of digital crap. 

The K2's DSP made it easier to listen around your frequency.  

The K2's range of dial speeds makes it easier to swing from one end of
the band to another when you are doing hunt and pounce (which with my
weak signal was mostly what I had to do). 

My K2 has the KDSP, and I use a DSP 599zx with the Omni V. It would be
hard to say which was "better,"  Having front panel knobs and
pushbuttons made the 599zx easier to use (and adjust the bandpass
filters), but the nicely integrated KDSP has better sounding audio and
offers multiple degrees of dynamic noise reduction. 

I'll look forward to the key click mod, and will likely continue to
make the K2/100 my standard CW contest radio.  

Jim Brown K9YC