[Elecraft] K3 #441 received

[Augie Hansen]

Hi David,
> Go to Rob's talk and make a video for the rest of us to enjoy and 
> learn. Have someone else drive while you sit in the back seat doing 
> the assembly ; o )

I chose to attend the Boulder Amateur Radio Club (BARC) meeting. 
Couldn't get a chauffeur so had to postpone the assembly, probably until 
this weekend.

Following the basic club meeting and discussion, Rob's presentation and 
the interleaved Q&A took about two hours and was an evening well spent. 
BARC is in the process of setting up new clubhouse facilities at the 
Boulder County Airport, where this meeting took place. Unfortunately no 
taping was done. However, much of the content was merged from the Dayton 
presentations that Rob makes available on his web site:

    http://www.sherweng.com/

Regarding receiver performance, Rob emphasized the importance of good 
narrow-spaced dynamic range, correct AGC behavior in the presence of 
impulse noise, and low local oscillator phase noise. Good narrow-spaced 
dynamic range is particularly important for CW contesters, less so for 
phone operators. The K3 is the first rig he has tested that exceeds 100 
dB for close-in (2 kHz) spacing dynamic range.

In addition, Rob spent some time talking about the sad state of transmit 
IMD in virtually all modern transmitters, except perhaps those that 
provide Class A operation. Splatter on SSB transmissions, especially 
with solid state PAs, is usually due to aggressive use of ALC to control 
power. And key clicks on CW transmissions usually result from ALC and 
rise/fall time issues.

Gus Hansen
KB0YH
K2 S/N 3302
K3 S/N 441