[Elecraft] P3 Questions

[David Yarnes]

I may need some assistance on how my P3 should act.  My P3 
arrived while I was away on an extended trip to the 
Northwest.  I now have it up and running, but I have some 
questions.  I've perused the manual, including the newer 
version on the website.  It seems that my levels may be 
wrong, but not sure.

Here's what I have done--I updated my K3 firmware to the 
latest version on the website.  I also updated the P3 
firmware.  I also had to make the mod to my K3 (#96) for the 
I.F. output gain.  Prior to making that modification, the 
noise level seemed to be around -110 dbm, but that was also 
before I updated my K3 firmware also.

Now, I seem to have a reference level way down to 
around -140 dbm.  I do see signal spikes, but it seems to 
take an S8 or S9 signal to really show on my screen (to 
differentiate them from just noise), which I assume is 
indicative of my noise floor.  None of the illustrations in 
the manual show something starting that low.  It makes me 
wonder if I did the K3 mod properly.  I did replace the SMT 
part with the supplied SMT device (or think I did!). 
Hopefully I didn't screw that up.

All of this scaling varies from band to band somewhat, but 
it's always -120 dbm or lower.  I see nice spikes from 
stronger signals, but some that are quite copiable on the K3 
don't seem to make much of a spike at all.  The waterfall 
does seem to show the signal better in those cases.  I'm 
assuming it's just because those signals are right at the 
noise level, but I was primarily concerned about the fact 
that my setting has to be so much lower (higher numberical 
value of "minus" dbm) than anything shown in the manual.

Dave W7AQK