[Elecraft] K3 6M operation

[Mike Harris]

G'day,

6M configuration:

5el Yagi at 50 feet, approx 150 feet of Ecoflex 10 coax 1.5-2dB 
loss.  K3 with PR6.

Antenna pointing north over the harbour and open country, no S-meter 
reading but upon removal the antenna RX noise fell by 8-9dB as 
displayed by the K3 dBV. (PRE and PR6 on, 400Hz bandwidth).  It is 
not always so quiet.

Monitoring beacon LU5EGY in Buenos Aires, approx 1900km distant.

In order of improving copy:

Pre    PR6   Copy
N       N      Nil
Y       N      ESP Copied call with difficulty
N       Y      ESP+ Copied call easily
Y       Y      Easy copy

I tried the effect of NR with a setting of F1-2 and it was very 
interesting.   If the signal is very week then enabling NR 
extinguished the CWT marker and nothing was heard.  Only when the 
CWT marker remained did NR have any noticeable effect on the signal. 
In the above cascade of tests enabling NR resulted in a significant 
improvement in ease of copy (quiet background) when both PRE and PR6 
were on.

Further it was interesting to note that for me 400Hz BW was not the 
best copy.  Reducing BW to 50-150Hz (500Hz roofing) or increasing to 
600-700Hz (2k7 roofing) was certainly much easier to listen to. 
With the wider BW the residual noise was certainly less 
harsh/granular, more smooth/rounded sounding.  Sidetone frequency 
600Hz.

Tuesday evening I had a QSL with a station in BA who was running 1W 
to a simple wire antenna and was S9.  I reduced output to 1W and was 
also copied OK.

I hope this is of some use.

Regards,

Mike VP8NO




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike" <nf4l at nf4l.com>
To: <rfenabled at gmail.com>
Cc: "Elecraft" <Elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 8:48 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 6M operation


I've got the preamp, but my antennae have been on the ground since I 
got
the K3. Going back up this weekend, and I'd definitely like to hear 
what
people have to say about it, so I'd appreciate the discussion being 
held
on the reflector.

73, Mike NF4L

rfenabled at gmail.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Well I just completed my first 6M contest this past weekend and 
> found it quite good.
>
> There was some time ago a lot of comments on the K3's sensitivity 
> on 6M.
>
> The result was Elecraft produced a pre-amp and not much comment 
> has been seen since.
>
> If anyone on the list is a 6m operator with a pre-amp it would be 
> good if they could contact me off list and let me know what they 
> think of running with or without the pre-amp...
>
> I don't wish to clog the reflector with this topic.
>
> Regards
> Gary
> VK4WT
> Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra