[Elecraft] Upgrade from k2 to KX3 for week station hunting?

[Jim Brown]

On 8/20/2013 8:20 AM, Chip Stratton wrote:
> Part of the difference may be lie in the ability of the KX3 to squeeze down
> to a much narrower filter width than the K2. Even at wider filter settings
> the KX3 is easier for me to listen to however.

I suspect a large part of the difference is that the IF filters in the 
KX3 are DSP, which can be better shaped to optimize the total response 
than the crystal filters in the K2. On SSB, the TX filter is used for RX 
in the widest position, but the narrower settings staggertune the 
filters, which produces a frequency response with lots of bumps and 
grinds, and sounds varying degrees of awful. Part of that is due to the 
phase shift associated with all of those filters. It's funny -- pro 
audio guys understand the importance of good phase response to good 
speech intelligibility, but RF guys generally do not.

The K3 and KX3 also have a lot less phase noise than the K2, which I 
would expect to show up when digging weak signals out of big ones (like 
QRN).

73, Jim K9YC