[Elecraft] Using K3's Pre-amp

[Bill W4ZV]

wayne burdick wrote:
> 
> 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.
> 

To add a few numbers to Wayne's comment, S4 on a calibrated S-meter (S9=50uV
and 6 dB/S-unit) should be about -103 dBm.  The noise floor (MDS) of the K3
with preamp off/on is 130/138 dBm (500 Hz BW).  As Wayne said, the preamp
will do absolutely no good until you reduce the external noise by 27/35 dB. 
In fact you could operate with your attenuator on and wouldn't miss weak
signals since the K3's noise floor would still be ~20 dB below your external
noise.

73,  Bill

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