[Elecraft] K3: course wanted: Panadaptor 101

[Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy]

Jack Smith <jack.smith at cliftonlaboratories.com> wrote:

> First, I have a definite bias to stand-alone equipment that works without 
> a computer.

I'll second that!

>.On HF, a panadapter can show you a pile up quickly, or in general give you 
>a good idea where the activity is at any given instant.

In a pile up situation I have found it very useful to be able to turn on a 
line marker which shows where my transmitter frequency is positioned with 
respect to the other callers, before transmitting, and using a span which 
covers the DX station's frequency and his listening frequencies. If the DX 
is working SSB 'wide split' e.g. transmitting on 7205  kHz and listening 
7060 kHz, I would monitor 7060 kHz +- with the panadapter (and audio) while 
listening to the DX's audio on 7205 kHz.

> For these uses, in my view, a panadapter requires a span of at least 100 
> KHz, and preferably more. The Z90 has a maximum default span of 200 KHz, 
> and maximum user-defined span of 250 KHz. In retrospect, I wish that I had 
> made it 500 KHz, with perhaps 3 KHz resolution bandwidth, as it would 
> provide a greater overview of most of an HF band (excluding 10 meters, of 
> course).

With respect my personal view is that a span of 200 - 250 kHz is ample for 
routine monitoring purposes at HF and VHF. For greater spans the receiver 
can be put into SCAN  mode while using the panadapter as long as the 
receiver's scan rate is not too high. My K2 scans too rapidly for my 
purposes at VHF.

73,
Geoff
GM4ESD