[Elecraft] K144XV receive gain

[w8zn at comcast.net]

After seeing several postings about the K144xv gain and experiencing issues myself, I did some testing.

Comparing a K3/K144XV on 2m vs 6m.

On version 3.97 firmware, on 6m -87dbm yielded a S9 signal with the PR6 preamp in but the internal preamp off - best setting.
On 2m, this yielded a S9+5 signal with the internal preamp still off.

After loading 4.12 or higher, the same -87dbm gave the same S9 on 6m but now only S5 on 2m and still only S7 with the internal preamp on. To achieve the same S9 reading, I had to increase the signal level to -72dbm with the internal preamp off. The release notes for 4.12 reference a gain change on the K144xv and by the results of the 3.97 test I agree, there was too much gain but instead of dropping 6 db or so, it appears that they dropped 15db. Hopefully this will be rectified in the near future.



Terry Price - W8ZN  ex K8ISK
FM18dv - 1.8MHz thru 47GHz
K8GP - The Grid Pirates - FM19bb