[Elecraft] K144XV receive gain

[Jeff Cochrane - VK4BOF]

Hi Terry,
Thanks very much for posting of those figures.
Although I do not have test gear that can back those numbers up I can say that from my extensive on air testing that indeed, the 2M gain reduction was overdone and to somewhere in the region your figures are showing.
The local (60+Km away) 2M FM repeater was normally S9+30db on earlier firmware releases (around release 3.97 or so) on my K3 and once I got to firmware revision 4.05 it had dropped to S9+5db, now that I am at revision 4.14 it is now S5!
Nothing has changed at the repeater and all other radios tried with the same antenna at my location show at least S9+20db signal strength. (And usually full scale, it is an exceptional repeater, over 1500ft high and with 50watts output to a 6+db gain antenna, it is almost full scale on my handheld in the back yard here!)
Even allowing that the other radios have optomistic S meters I cannot believe that they are all out by so much and by such a consistant amount.

The overdoing of the 2m gain reduction has been the subject of a few emails I have sent to Elecraft and to this reflector and to date I have not heard an answer on the subject.

Jeff Cochrane - VK4BOF
Innisfail, QLD, Australia
Elecraft K3# 4257

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: w8zn at comcast.net 
  To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net 
  Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2010 11:18 AM
  Subject: [Elecraft] K144XV receive gain


  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
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