[Elecraft] ZLX8 - K3 firmware

[Wes Stewart]

I'll confess to not being much of a CW op (only 277 worked) but my recent experience with entering the realm of either 2nd RX or panadapter usage, I've gone to the panadapter, and only recently at that.

In my case it's an SDR-IQ running SpectraVue, which interfaces to the K3 flawlessly.

I've never much been one to use spots, second receivers, panadapters, etc.  But this has been somewhat of a revelation.  The ability to see the pileup allows one to find a hole, or if the pile is disciplined enough to actually stop transmitting when the called station is transmitting, if propagation is right, you can see him much easier than you would find him by tuning for him. 

So, at least for now, I prefer the panadapter and XIT for splitting and RIT for finding the hole or zero beating the QSL station. MHO.

Wes Stewart  N7WS

--- On Sun, 11/21/10, Bill VanAlstyne W5WVO <w5wvo at cybermesa.net> wrote:

> ZL8X is running seven (7) stations
> concurrently. See their website: 
> http://www.kermadec.de/organisation/equipment/index.php
> 
> They may be running K3s, but they make no mention on their
> website of what 
> brand of equipment they are using, and Elecraft is not one
> of their sponsors 
> (nor are any of the other radio companies -- IKenSu etc.).
> 
> Worked them on 40 CW this morning with 100W to a
> non-resonant SWL sloper 15 
> ft up at the top end. After two hours banging away at the
> pileup (which was 
> nearly 3 kHz wide, BTW), I was about to give up when I was
> finally able to 
> find a contact's transmit frequency and tail-end him --
> switching back and 
> forth using the RIT button with XIT turned on. This would
> have been MUCH 
> easier with a P3 or with a KRX3, or both! When each QSO
> transmission is 
> about 2-3 seconds long, this is really doing it the hard
> way. But I did it, 
> and I'm in their online log this evening.
> 
> To all veteran HF CW DXers -- If I were going to get EITHER
> a KRX3 or a P3 
> to make working split pileups more efficient and
> productive, WHICH should I 
> invest in first?
> 
> Bill W5WVO