[Elecraft] K3 Mojo

[Dave Andrus]

 From my left coast location, I can agree that TX5C is not nearly as  
consistently strong as VP6DX was.

I think they've ben dealing with other problems besides the weather.   
Just last night on 75m SSB, they were in the middle of (finally)  
working North America after taking EU, then VK and ZL, when they  
suddenly went off the air without warning.

After several minutes of silence, the op came back on to say that  
their generator took a dive.  Not sure if this was a constant problem,  
but I know it's happened more than once to them when I've been  
listening.  I don't recall hearing the VP6DX folks having similar  
problems.

A good reminder of how tough it is to keep power running constantly on  
these remote locations.  I've done "generator duty" before, and it's  
not very much fun!

73,

Dave K7DAA
http://www.k7daa.com


On Mar 14, 2008, at 10:37 AM, T. David Yarnes wrote:

> Jerry and All,
>
> The K3 does indeed rock!  I had much the same results as you working  
> the Clipperton group.  I ended up (assuming they are now packing up  
> to leave) with 17 band slots.  I missed 160 ssb, 10 CW (much to my  
> dismay), and 40 SSB.  40 SSB was a real brick wall for some reason,  
> but it may be due to the tech problem I had which I described in an  
> earlier post.  I got all 20 of the band slots with the VP6DX group  
> (they didn't do anything on 6 meters).  All of this was done just  
> with the K3 barefoot (100 watts) and an R8 vertical.  The ability to  
> work both groups on RTTY "sans" computer was the really neat trick.
>
> I also agree the Ducie Island group was easier to work, but I think  
> there are several good reasons for that (including the fact they  
> were using K3's!).  I'm not trying to be overly critical of the  
> Clipperton group, but I think just about all the ops on Ducie were  
> outstanding.  They were really knocking off the QSO's at a rapid  
> rate with great efficiency.   Often the Clipperton ops seemed to be  
> struggling a bit to nail down a contact--more so at least than the  
> Clipperton ops.  I also suspect the antennas on Ducie were better.   
> I heard them better, and they seemed to hear me better.  I was using  
> the same antenna (the R8) on both.  But in fairness to the  
> Clipperton folks, they apparently had their hands full due to  
> weather.  Antennas blew over and were damaged by lightning storms  
> which frequent and drove them off the air (plus making copy  
> difficult), etc.  I didn't hear much complaining about the weather  
> on Ducie.  I also think the fact that they were closer to both of us  
> may have been to our detriment on 10 and 12 meters.  I heard them  
> working midwest and east coast stations when I couldn't even hear  
> them in Arizona.
>
> The one big thing I have concluded from chasing both of these groups  
> is that I probably need to add the 2nd receiver.  I thought I might  
> be able to "live" without it, but that's the one feature where my  
> Orion II beats my K3 right now.  Trying to chase the split frequency  
> for DX is so much easier with a second receiver, instead of  
> constantly pushing the reverse button.  The VP6 ops especially were  
> running some very big splits, and they were roaming over a fairly  
> wide range of listening frequencies.  You really need to zero in  
> within reason to where they are actually listening.  So I guess I'll  
> be stuffing another $1k or so into the K3 some day soon.
>
> Anyway, it's been fun!  The K3 made it even more so.
>
> Dave W7AQK
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jerry T. Dowell" <ai6l at sbcglobal.net 
> >
> To: <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Friday, March 14, 2008 9:22 AM
> Subject: [Elecraft] K3 Mojo
>
>
>> I am happy to report that the K3 is not lacking in the traditional  
>> mojo. My
>> first QSO with the K3 was TX5C, followed by working them all bands  
>> 160M
>> through 15M CW and SSB, excepting 160M SSB and 40M SSB. This was  
>> barefoot
>> with one antenna, a dipole at 15 ft. For 160, I had to load just  
>> the center
>> conductor of the coax, disconnecting the shield. The mojo  
>> approaches that of
>> the K2/100, with which I worked VP6DX CW and SSB 160M-15M excepting  
>> 160 SSB.
>> It took much less time with the K2, but that may have been due to  
>> different
>> operating procedures between the two DXpeditions.
>>
>> My first RTTY QSO with the K3, by the way, was with VK9NS on 17M.  
>> For that I
>> used MTTY with the AFSK A mode. It is interesting to note that the  
>> K3 itself
>> seemed to do a better job decoding than MTTY. Perhaps the  
>> difference would
>> disappear with optimum setup.
>>
>> It's a keeper!
>>
>> Jerry   AI6L
>>
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