[Elecraft] K3 - SSB & Filtering in a tough operating environment

[David Wilburn]

There was some discussion recently about the capabilities of the K3 on 
SSB.  I had some concerns about the rigs capabilities.  What I 
experienced made complete sense when properly explained.

But earlier this week, I was truly impressed by the K3's SSB 
capabilities.

During a state wide bi-weekly 80m SSB emergency net, the band changed 
drastically in a very short time.  Net control went from an S5 to down 
in the noise in a matter of 10 minutes.  I listened for a bit, could 
tell that he was talking but that was it.  Nothing was intelligible. 
To top it all off there were round tables going on 80m where each 
person, though located near to each other, was running considerable 
wattage.  One of these were within 2kHz of our frequency.  Then throw 
in the normal intentional QRM the net experiences.  It was truly 
miserable conditions.

Then I started tweaking.  Auto-notch knocked down the intentional QRM. 
  I have the 1.8k filter.  I brought the width into 1.8 so it kicked 
in.  I then started playing with the shift.  A little bit of NR, and I 
could copy net control.  He wasn't S9, but I had good copy, no fading. 
  Station after station could not hear net control call them.  When 
the adjacent station in my county was called and he didn't reply, I 
gave him a quick heads up.  He replied and finished the net, as did I.

In event of a real emergency, this would have made all the difference 
in the world.  I am not a big gun station.  We are talking about a low 
dipole, setup as an inverted vee.

The sense of accomplishment, and the confidence in what I can do with 
the radio went through the roof.

This is an amazing rig Elecraft.  A big thanks to all the folks who 
had a hand in bringing us this impressive product.
-- 

David Wilburn
NM4M
http://www.nm4m.com

P.S. - CQ WW SSB was were I honed these skills, and started learning 
what all I could get out of this radio.  Just two weeks ago.  This is 
how contesting can pay off.