[Elecraft] CQ WW

[Paul Heller]

Douglas Westover wrote:
> With a really crowded band the K2 sounds clean
> between individual signals and shows no tendency
> to overload whereas the 706 (with optional 250Hz
> filter) just sounds continuously "muddy" with a
> significantly elevated noise floor. Signals that
> are solid copy on the K2 can be totally covered
> by the noise. My favorite K2/706 comparison is
> when W6YX, 3 miles "by crow" from my QTH,
> is pointing NE from its hilltop right down my
> throat. The 706 simply collapses and is unusable
> for signals less than about 25kHz away whereas
> the K2 doesn't even know he's there until
> you get within about 2kHz.
>
> And you don't have to pay $10k for the
> luxury!
>   
I decided to test my K2 against my IC-756ProIII in the CQWW to see how 
the two rigs compared on 40 and 80 - after about 5 hours I stopped going 
back and forth and just stayed with the K2 - it really does an excellent 
job under contest conditions, and I've been amazed how clean it sounds 
even when the band is full of extremely loud nearby signals.  Wow.

I decided to dig out my old SB-220 for the contest - the K2 drives it 
easily - no complaints or strange behavior at all - just smooth, 
consistent operation.  I'm doing the amp relay switching with the 
keyer's PTT line, and I set a 20 ms lead to give the old relay time to 
close before keying starts.

/Paul
 W3PH

-- 
Paul Heller
ph at his.com