[Elecraft] Newbie Questions for K3...subreceiver module

[Phil Hystad]

Gang,

Thanks for all the great e-mails and answers to my first round of K3 questions.  Lots of good information and advice.  I do have a few more questions but I will limit these of one question at a time.


Several people have advised to get the sub-receiver option.  Now, this really puts me on the fence as I have a sub-receiver in my Icom Pro III and I almost never use it.  Actually, I have never used it in an actual QSO, I have merely played with it from time to time.

So, my first question is, "Why do I want a sub-receiver?"...

Maybe a little about my background helps.  I got into ham radio as a novice (WN7ECQ) back in the mid-1960s.  Ham radio was very rudimentary back then with CW mode only, a transmitter and a few crystals, but a very good receiver (Hammarlund, HQ-170AC).  Then, after the Novice one-year license expired I let the hobby go silent for 38 years.  I was relicensed and back on the air in February/March 2004 with a used Icom 756 transceiver.

But, my operating style reflects a lot of my Novice experience rooted in the technology and practices of the 1960s.  Mostly CW, some SSB for some of the evening nets and other stuff when the band is hot and a periodically scheduled SSB QSO with some of my ham friends from back in those 1960 days.  Not much of a contester but I very much like the technology aspect, experimentation, SDR, and so on.  And, I am always looking to do new things that capture my interest.

So, I may be missing out on a huge corner of this hobby by not even knowing how someone makes use of a sub-receiver.  Thus, my question.

73,
phil, K7PEH