[Elecraft] K3 Preamp observation

[Steve Ellington]

In spite of everything we've learned over the years, the Preamp on the K3 
actually helps  when it's not needed. For example: I just worked a station 
on 160m. The QRN is peaking 20 - 40db over 9. His signal averaged S7 to S9. 
Normally under these conditions you would certainly not want to use a preamp 
however when I engage the preamp, the CW actually rises above the noise 
level and is much easier to copy. I've done this a dozen times. I also use a 
more narrow filter and the NR helps a lot also but that preamp helps more 
than anything. It's strange why the extra, unneeded gain would help but for 
some reason it does. I think the NR actually responds better when there's 
more noise! whatever....I'm happy.
Steve Ellington
N4LQ at carolina.rr.com