[Elecraft] Using K3's Pre-amp

[wayne burdick]

Dave,

The noise floor is your entire problem  :)  It's a fact that the preamp 
improves the MDS of the K3 by at least several dB. But if  your noise 
floor is S4, it will do not good at all, because all lower signals are 
already masked by the noise.

I think you'd be a candidate for some sort of high-Q, low-noise, 
directional receiving antenna. In that case you would most definitely 
benefit from the preamp! (You'd need the RX ANT IN jack, supplied with 
the KXV3 option.)

May I ask what's causing all that noise in your location?

tnx
Wayne
N6KR

On Jan 9, 2009, at 8:43 PM, Dave Yarnes wrote:

> I'm just curious how others are using (or not using) the K3's pre-amp. 
>  I
> have found few, if any, situations where I felt the pre-amp really 
> improved
> a signal vs. the additional noise that is associated with turning on 
> the
> pre-amp.  It takes a lot of balancing, in my view, between the RF gain 
> and
> the AF gain to enhance a weaker signal, and I don't find the pre-amp 
> to be
> all that helpful.  Having said that, I'm pretty happy with the results 
> I get
> w/o using the pre-amp.  Also, signals on the K3 w/o pre-amp compare 
> very
> favorably to signals on my Orion II with the pre-amp on.  The K3 still 
> seems
> to hear just a tad bit better.  So, I'm wondering if I'm missing some 
> other
> trick or setting that would make the K3's pre-amp more beneficial.  I 
> can
> tell you that 90% or more of the time I tend to have my RF gain at 50% 
> or
> less (at about 12 o'clock), and make very slight adjustments of the RF 
> gain
> from there.  I suppose much of this might depend on one's noise floor.
> FWIW, mine is about S4.
>
> Dave W7AQK
>
>
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