[Elecraft] K3 Diversity Rocks!

[Vic K2VCO]

Dave Van Wallaghen wrote:
> It's funny that you mention this today as I was going to post something 
> about it as well. I got to try diversity receiving yesterday and what a 
> world of difference in copying through QSB.

I have been using polarization diversity on 20M CW. One antenna is a 4 el yagi at 45 feet 
and the other is a ground plane cut for 17 meters.

I also hear the signal moving back and forth with QSB, but there seems to be another 
advantage as well. One problem I have copying weak CW signals is that sometimes a bit of 
noise comes along and causes me to miss a letter in a call, for example, and I have to 
wait for the guy to send it again. During a QSO it's less of a problem because the brain 
fills in letters and words from the context, but sometimes I am missing almost every other 
letter and this mechanism breaks down.

Possibly the noise is picked up differently by the antennas...I'm not sure, but when 
diversity is on, the signal seems to stand out, less damaged by the noise. Far fewer 
letters get crunched -- it makes it much easier to copy.

It's also helpful when I hear a signal loud in the right (vertical) ear and weak on the 
left (beam). Then I know the beam needs to be turned, even before I hear the guy's call!
-- 
73,
Vic, K2VCO
Fresno CA
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco