[Elecraft] Just how good is the K2?

[Don Melcher]

Brendan Minish wrote:

"The K2 easily allows my ear to pick out a weak signal very close to a
much stronger signal. I don't find the audio of the pro2 as transparent
in this regard."

I couldn't agree more.

"I find that a 120 Hz setting on the k2 (yes the shape factor isn't as
good as the pro2) along with the DSP module set to around 100 hz is a
formidable weapon but I almost always run at around 600 or 450 Hz and
let the ears do the work, it's less tiring that way."

Ditto - it is just plain fatiguing to listen to the ProII for a CW
contest - at first I just thought I was tired - but then I realized what
the problem was. It was like being buffeted by wind. Sure - - narrowing
the filter down to a couple of hundred Hz may cut out the QRM - but it
will also cut out most stations responding to a CQ. That just doesn't
work in a contest. 600 - 800 Hz is a more realistic bandwidth - 400 Hz
is about as narrow as you can go.

George, W5YR wrote:

"When I can watch the spectral response of an S1 CW signal in a 150 Hz
DSP IF
filter and the associated receiver noise floor in that bandwidth, and
then
introduce an S9+40 dB signal just off the flank of the passband and see
no
change in either the weak signal or the receiver noise floor, then I
have to
believe that the PRO2 is just not the bad actor that the ARRL front-end
measurements would have us believe."

Brendan Minish wrote:

"This isn't a real world test! introduce 2 or 3 9++ signals within 5 KHz
and I suspect things will not be as pretty"

Exactly what I was talking about when I asked George the question about
the IMD... Stick a few strong signals within a few KHz of the desired
signal and it is cacophony. 

George, W5YR wrote:

"...a reasoned and rational response to my heretical seeming
"put down" of the K2, which my piece was never intended to be."

I understand that George - and I didn't take it as such. But I don't
think MY response was irrational. I have read your writings on the
756PRO & PROII and a lot of what you say may be true under lab or
specific conditions - but I don't operate in the lab - or under specific
conditions like single strong interfering signal - that typically ISN'T
the real world at least in a contest. I am not irrational or
unreasonable - I simply disagree with your conclusions. 

I own two PROIIs - they are a very nice radio with a lot of features -
but contrary to your opinion, I don't think the DSP IF filtering is the
death knell of analog radio - yet. It maybe getting close for SSB - the
notch filter on the PROII is amazing - takes a "pinning the meter"
carrier out completely. But it hurts my ears to listen to it for a long
period of time - particularly on CW. With each generation, DSP gets
better and better and I can't wait to listen to a 7800, but I wonder if
it will be worth the extra $8K. Time will tell.

73

Don
W6ZO