[Elecraft] K3 - Performance on 6M?

[Jim Brown]

On Fri, 2 Apr 2010 17:50:23 -0500, Bill K9YEQ wrote:

>I want to work more 6m signals and need to know the testing method. If 
>signals are that better then I need to add the external unit.

As often happens, this thread has gotten way out of hand, with Busby 
Berkeley swarms of angels dancing on the head of the pin. Let's take it 
back to basics. 

The RX in the K3 is decent on 6M, but it does need an external preamp. 
As a relative OT on 6M (since 1957), I already owned a mast-mountable 
ARR GasFET, which I inserted at the RX antenna patch point in my K3. As 
our British friends would say, it works a treat! If I hadn't already 
owned that preamp, I would have bought the Elecraft unit, which adds 
some quite useful switching so that you can also use Beverages at the RX 
antenna input. I had to roll my own switching for that. BTW -- although 
my primary 6M antenna is on a 120 ft tower, it's a 3-el SteppIR whose 
primary function is HF. If I had a dedicated 6M array, that preamp would 
be on the tower. 

73,

Jim Brown K9YC