[Elecraft] P3 Broad Birdie & straw men...

[juergen]

Hi Johnny

The OMNI6 had the same birdie problems. The birdie elimination routine is not all that effective and leaves holes in the band. I dont see how a more powerful DSP is going to help birdie  removal.

The best solution is a redesign of the boards with more shielding. The K3 is a very "open" design with regards to the internal shielding. When I added the second receiver I used some space blanket material that was grounded to the chasis, it did help a small amount.

 Ten Tec did improve the shielding for the 10 meter birdie problem, however that was not very effective also. Most operators used  homebrew  shielding solutions using 3rd party shielding material. I used space blanket material which helped.

No Birdies will happen In the K4, I suppose. Birdie problems are too hard to fix after the design has been released. The K3 is what it is, I will just wait for the K4 or wait for some other brand of miracle radio. The openHPSDR Hermes is starting to look good!

This sunspot cycle looks like its going to  be a poor one.  I can ignore  the birdies on the higher  bands  by not using the radio, I wont be missing much. The K3 unfortunately needs the preamp to be  left on, on the higher bands which makes the birdies worst, especially with the P3. You cant win!

73

Juergen



--- On Sun, 6/12/11, Johnny Siu <vr2xmc at yahoo.com.hk> wrote:

> From: Johnny Siu <vr2xmc at yahoo.com.hk>
> Subject: [Elecraft] P3 Broad Birdie & straw men...
> To: "jim at audiosystemsgroup.com" <jim at audiosystemsgroup.com>, "Reflector Elecraft" <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
> Date: Sunday, June 12, 2011, 11:44 PM
> Hello Jim,
>  
> I fully appreciate the PITA and am annoyed about it.
>  
> The elimination of internal birdies require substantial
> amount of DSP power.  In the circumstances, by taking
> advantage of the module design of K3, a new more
> powerful DSP board to replace the existing one may be the
> ultimate solution in the future.  Of course, this will take
> Elecraft some time to implement
>  
> At the current moment, I still feel that K3 is the
> smallest portable high performance radio with true dual
> receivers.  It will not be practical for me to take my
> IC7800 easily to other QTH to operate.
>  
> I am going to do some IOTA operation this week end and
> will bring my K3 with me.
> 
> TNX & 73,
> 
> 
> Johnny VR2XMC
> 
> 從︰ Jim Brown <jim at audiosystemsgroup.com>
> 收件人︰ Reflector Elecraft <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
> 傳送日期︰ 2011年06月13日 (週一) 1:25 PM
> 主題︰ Re: [Elecraft] P3 Broad Birdie & straw
> men...
> 
> I understand exactly what you are talking about -- my case
> #2, but I 
> also realized that what K3TUF and N6XI are talking about
> was my case 
> #1.  Your birdies and noise are from OUTSIDE the radio. 
> Their's are 
> only INSIDE the radio.  I experience both.
> 
> Notice that Phil says  "Must be on the IF because it is
> never heard even 
> when it is in the
> apparent bandwidth window."
> 
> These INTERIOR birdies also get MUCH stronger when you have
> the SUB RX 
> turned on.  During the VHF contest, I split my time
> between CW and SSB, 
> with the SUB RX listening to whichever one I wasn't
> transmitting on.  
> The thing that's a PITA about this is that you think that
> these are 
> signals that you can work, so you switch from SSB to CW to
> work them, 
> but they aren't really there.  There are also some fairly
> weak 
> birdies/noise peaks that look like weak CW signals, but are
> not.  And I 
> worked nearly a dozen weak CW signals that looked like
> those 
> birdies/noise peaks, and as you tune to work them, they
> also disappear.
> 
> 73, Jim K9YC
> 
> On 6/12/2011 6:34 PM, John Ragle wrote:
> > second paragraph, and I believe the other posts are
> talking about 
> > exactly the same thing. If you will take the time to
> read what they 
> > wrote, you might recognize as much. Perhaps your
> objection is to the 
> > use of the word "birdie" in this context?
> 
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