[Elecraft] 2.7 vs 2.8 filter choice K3

[Rick Dettinger]

On Apr 4, 2008, at 12:20 PM, Craig D. Smith wrote:
>
> In my opinion the difficulty in making the choice is because of the  
> pricing
> structure adapted by Elecraft for this option.  If the filters were  
> sold
> "ala carte", and you needed to buy the 2.7 or 2.8 in addition to the  
> K3 (or
> sub receiver), I'm guessing that most people, including me, would  
> elect to
> pay $120 for the 2.8 rather than $100 for the 2.7.
>
>
>
> =======================

> I think that Elecraft wanted to sell a working radio for the base  
> price.  That is the way that I ordered my K3 and it has worked very  
> well.  I am a CW only operator and I would never have considered  
> ordering any rig without a 500 hz filter, in years gone by.  For my  
> use, since I am not a contest operator and run from pileups, I found  
> the 2.7 khz filter just fine with the bandwidth set at CW widths.  I  
> have since ordered the 6 khz, 1 khz and 500 hz filters, just  
> because.  Also, the general coverage filter board because I didn't  
> have a good general coverage receiver.  I have read discussions on  
> other reflectors  involving the concept that under heavy QRN  
> conditions, filters characterized as having steep skirts, with the  
> resulting sharp shoulders, cause mixing products with the desired  
> signal, and that the result is unpleasant to listen to when QRM is  
> not a problem.  For the operating I do, especially on the lower  
> frequencies, QRN is usually the problem.  I seldom have to deal with  
> QRM over S9 and have decided to go with the 5 pole filters where  
> they are available.  But I am also fine with the 8 pole, 1 khz  
> filter to experiment with.  This seems to be my go to filter on CW  
> these days but I will be comparing  both.  With a strong interfering  
> signal close by, I can use the 1 khz filter, with its steeper  
> skirts, along with shift, to eliminate the QRM.   The shift seems to  
> change the center of the passband in 50 hz steps.  I usually have to  
> fine tune with VFO A after getting close with the shift control.   
> Not a problem, as I am always working split, since  I prefer that to  
> RIT.
>
> 73
> Rick Dettinger
> K7MW