[Elecraft] New Release of Win4K3/KX3 Suite

[Doug Ellmore]

First let me say, I am not an employee of Win4K Suite, but I just want to
spread the word about a product that make that investment in your K3 and
KX3 even more powerful and fun.

I thought I pass on the word if you have not checked out the new release
of the Win4K3/KX3 Suite (http://va2fsq.com/) and you have a KX3 or K3, you
should.

Version 1.708 has a number of significant improvements to the spectrum
scope.  One such improvement is a rework of the downsampling of DSP data
for the display.  My buddies and I gave Tom some feedback and showed him
what we like in other panadapters.  He took our suggests and did something
with it.

New routines now display many more peaks than previously and even many more
than the NAP3 panadapter display.  I use to be a beta tester for NAP3, and
I have extremely impressed with Tom's development.  It seems to be an
incredibly stable software product.

When I compared it side by side with NAP3, Win4K Suite found signals NAP3
did not see.  There is flexibility to use either a 16 bit or 24 bit sound
card.  There are 32bit and 64bit releases, too.

One of the things that is nice is the customization of the panadapter
display.  You can put in your band limits for your zone or license class,
and define colors nicely.

There were some refinements of the terminal window, too.

I used the a pre-release during SS SSB with N1MM+ and both were very
stable.  During SS CW, I was able run CW Skimmer, CW Get, use the Terminal
to capture long strings of the K3 decodse of CW, and run N1MM+.   I've
never been able to run on CW during a contest before.  But with all that
going, I was able to get long cw runs going day and night on 40m, rates
twice as high as any of my previous search and pounce rates.  Lots of fun.
A big batch of LoTW confirmations afterwards towards 40m CW WAS, too!

I use com0com with Win4K Suite for virtual com port support, then run HRD
Logger application, and HRD Rotator (when not using N1MM+) with Win4K
Suite.  I no longer use HRD's Rig Control.  Win4K suite replace HRD's Rig
Control as the server HRD and other apps can connect to in order to access
the K3/KX3.

HRD Logger works extremely well with Win4k suite.  click on a dx spot in
HRD Logger or Win4K3 dx window, and the radio QSYs.  Nice!  With HRD Logger
and Win4K cluster window open, you can be connected to two different DX
Clusters like Club Log (synched with your DXCC Status) and HRD Logger (also
synched with your DX status).

Then using the spectrum you can look, listen and feel on the DX is working
and where!  Awesome.  He has a nice split feature that allow you to click
on split, then right click up 1, 3, 5 or 10.  Quick and not mistakes
sending on the DX station wanting to work split.

Give it a try during CQ WW CW or chasing DX/WAS, I think you will be
excited with the product.
73,

Doug NA1DX