[Elecraft] The case for a Panadapter - opinions, please?

[Fred Jensen]

On 2/28/2014 10:08 AM, Jim Lowman wrote:

> When I see options like the Panadapter, or bandscopes from other
> manufacturers, I get the metaphor of fishing in a stocked pond.

Many years ago [more than I want to admit], I had a WW2 surplus 
panadapter.  Little round scope, one trace, and signals looked like a 
"hump" [similar to the IC-756 series bandscope].  It was a 
semi-interesting hi-tech thing ... for the day.  I bought my P3 as a 
toy, just something to fool around with.
>
> So, for those of you who have this option, could you describe how it has
> assisted you?

It's what I look at now.  It has features I don't use much, or at all, 
and a list of how I use it will be redundant to those you'll get from a 
countable infinity of responses you'll get.  One use which I think is 
unique to me was being able to discover that WWV on 2.5 and 20 MHz uses 
low level modulation and linear amplification while on 5, 10, and 15 
MHz, they plate modulate a Class C final stage. :-))

> In another message, someone mentioned that weak stations outside of the
> passband could be missed, which is a good point.

Actually, it's no point at all.  The P3 uses the 8 MHz first IF directly 
from the mixer and before the roofing filters.  The only filter in the 
path is the input bandpass filter which is way wider than anything the 
P3 can display.  If you set the K3 to 14.100 MHz and the P3 SPAN to 200, 
you are looking at the range 14.000-14.200.

Right after I got mine, I realized that I couldn't see weaker signals 
against the waterfall background due to a very poor choice of Mom and 
Dad ... I have no color vision.  A couple of weeks later, Alan added the 
option of a monochrome waterfall solving my problem.  Even if you have 
normal color vision you might try the monochrome out, several visitors 
have commented that it works better for them too.

Note, I just mentioned it once on the list looking for ideas to make it 
work better.  Alan [Elecraft] just did it but then you probably know 
that's how they work. :-)

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2014 Cal QSO Party 4-5 Oct 2014
- www.cqp.org