[Elecraft] K2 and the TX9 from the Southeast

[Donald Nesbitt]

With my poor antennas and equally poor propagation (with only a couple of
exceptions, they were ESP) working the TX9 from here in the Southeast was
NOT easy for me!  Like some others, I also spent pretty much the entire
period of their operation chasing them on about 5 hours of sleep per night.
The result:  3 contacts - 2 cw (17 meters - one QRO, one QRP) and 1 ssb (10
meters).  TX9 is DXCC # 344 for me so in my little world it had to be "bell
to bell."

I have 4 stations set up (lots of equipment - lots of covenant restrictions
and therefore rotton antennas!) each with linear amps.  K2; Icom 756 Pro II;
Yaesu 1000MP Mark V; and Collins S-line.  All three qso's were made using
the K2!

With their signals ESP most of the time, the only rig that gave me any sort
of readable copy was the K2 - yes, I could tell they were in there on the
others but I could actually copy them on the K2 !  In order they were:  K2,
75S-3, and the Pro II and MK V were about the same.  I know that the 40 year
old Collins 75S-3 being second may seem out of place to many but with the
200 hz Collins xtal filter (augmented with the Timewave DSP 5-9+) it is
quite amazing even in today's world (see Sherwood's various musings on
rcvrs).

The Pro II had one advantage over the K2 and the others - the notch filter
on it simply is the best!  On ssb the notch filter eliminated the cw on top
of them on 40 in the "manual" position - the others could not touch it!

I've never been impressed with the dsp notch in my K2 even with lots of
fiddling with the parameters.  I have to rate it as only "fair" - 'course, I
believe that the Pro II does the dsp notch at the IF and that makes an
amazing difference!

There are lots of things about each of the other rigs that I really like -
but - if I had to keep just one it would have to be the K2.  What an amazing
little box!  73 es gud dx --don n4hh K2/100 #2028, etc, etc.


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