[Elecraft] K3 Subreceiver Status Update (KRX3 option)

wayne burdick n6kr at elecraft.com
Wed Jan 16 13:18:06 EST 2008


I wanted to give those who've ordered a K3 subreceiver a status update. 
First, thanks for your patience; I realize the subreceiver has been 
significantly delayed. (This is also pushing out the DVR. Lyle, KK7P 
and I are collaborating on the PCBs and firmware for both units.)

When we release a product, it has to meet a number of criteria. Raw 
performance by traditional measures is just one of these. Fortunately 
the subreceiver has met our expectations in this regard, with dynamic 
range virtually identical to that of the main.

But there are two other requirements that we must meet: excellent 
mutual isolation between the main and receivers, and ease of 
installation. Recently, we made the difficult decision that both must 
be improved.

Isolation between the receivers is critical to usability. For example, 
if you're listening to an extremely strong signal on one receiver, none 
of it should leak into the other's I.F. After extensive testing, we 
concluded that we were close, but needed more isolation.

Regarding installation: Someone with no experience should be able to 
install or remove the subreceiver without much difficulty. The present 
installation process is just a bit too complex once all other modules 
and their associated cables are in place; the left side, chassis 
stiffener, and several cables have to be removed. This has a secondary 
effect, which is to make it very time-consuming to change crystal 
filters on either receiver. We felt that we should improve this now, 
before all fabrications were cast in stone.

Both isolation and installation can be improved with changes to our 
original KRX3 PCB layout. I'm working on this now. Once the PC board 
and shield designs are complete, we'll quickly build first articles and 
run them through all of the tests again.

I'm confident that these improvements will allow the subreceiver to 
live up to your expectations as well as ours. We'll post further 
updates as we make progress.

(I know, I know -- "Stop rambling and get back to work!")

73,
Wayne
N6KR


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http://www.elecraft.com



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