[Elecraft] Receivers?

Phil Wheeler w7ox at socal.rr.com
Sat Dec 12 03:18:43 EST 2015


Barry,

You said "Our Field Day operation uses all KX3s, 
QRP ... ".  Well that's a tad different than if 
you have some 500 W stations nearby operating near 
your frequency.  And that is more typical of the 
situation I described.  So rather than disagree 
you provided the exception that proves the rule :-)

And "the KX3 can handle any intelligently crowded 
environment": Would that  all our bands were 
"intelligently crowded"!

73, Phil W7OX

On 12/11/15 3:49 PM, Barry LaZar wrote:
> Phil,
>     I will take the given opportunity to 
> disagree. Our Field Day operation uses all KX3s, 
> QRP, That accounts for 3AB + a GOTA station. 
> There have been times when we found one of our 
> GOTA ops on the same band and in the same 
> portion of the band. What we have found is that 
> if the other radio is not in the same part of 
> the band, you may not even know he is there.  
> However, you know he's there.  If he is far 
> enough away, you could work through him. There 
> is one caveat. We do have our antennas really 
> spread out. Our GOTA antenna(s) can be any where 
> from 200'-400' away depending on which of our 
> many antennas are being used at the time. And 
> secondly, all of our radios are using the 8 KHz 
> offset. I was amazed at the demonstration the 
> first time it happened. I would say that the KX3 
> can handle any intelligently crowed environment.
>
> 73,
> Barry
> K3NDM
>
> ------ Original Message ------
> From: "Phil Wheeler" <w7ox at socal.rr.com>
> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Sent: 12/11/2015 6:23:11 PM
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Receivers?
>
>> Scott,
>>
>> I agree with all that Ron says -- and have the 
>> K2, K3 and KX3 .. and like them all.
>>
>> Re "I am considering the KX3": The one caveat I 
>> would add, and others can expand on (or 
>> disagree with) this, is that if you operate in 
>> a dense ham environment like Field Day or with 
>> other nearby hams operating on the same bands 
>> the direct-conversion KX3 will not be as good 
>> as the two superhets because you may have more 
>> difficulty hearing weaker signals with those 
>> strong, nearby signals at adjacent frequencies.
>>
>> In Auckland this may or may not be an issue for 
>> you -- but as I recall 70% or so of New 
>> Zealand's population is in the Auckland area.
>>
>> 73, Phil W7OX
>>
>> On 12/11/15 1:40 PM, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:
>>> Scott, the three rigs use different design 
>>> formats:
>>>
>>> The K3 and K2 and conventional superhetrodyne 
>>> formats with an Intermediate
>>> Frequency in the H.F. range and crystal 
>>> filters to set the passband. The K2
>>> has an adjustable crystal filter and the K3 
>>> uses fixed crystal filter
>>> bandwidths. The basic K2 bandwidth is 
>>> established by the crystal filter
>>> while the K3 adds an adjustable DSP filter 
>>> after the crystal filter. (The K2
>>> has an optional audio DSP for enhanced 
>>> filtering.)
>>>
>>> Although you will often see Elecraft rig 
>>> owners refer to "roofing filters"
>>> the Elecraft rigs avoid them, using an I.F. in 
>>> the H.F. range instead that
>>> avoids a lot of the compromises involved in 
>>> up-converting to a first I.F. in
>>> the VHF range with a VHF "roofing filter" to 
>>> set the initial selectivity.
>>>
>>> The KX3 is quite different. It is a 
>>> high-performance direct conversion
>>> receiver using phasing to suppress the 
>>> unwanted sideband followed by
>>> filtering of the resulting audio.
>>>
>>> I'm a casual, mostly QRP operator who avoids 
>>> pile-ups (and so contests) and
>>> enjoy all three. If I had to settle on one or 
>>> the other I'd probably take
>>> the KX3 as my first choice because of its 
>>> small size, the "transparent"
>>> sound of a direct conversion format and 
>>> options such as the PX3 panadapter.
>>> My second choice would be my trusty and ever 
>>> dependable 15 year old K2
>>> simply because I'm basically an "analog" sort 
>>> of guy. But I have no
>>> complaints about the K3/K3S. I'm sure others 
>>> who enjoy busting "pileups"
>>> will have more to offer about the advantages 
>>> of the K3/K3S.
>>>
>>> For detailed test comparisons check out the 
>>> results published by Sherwood
>>> Engineering on their web site:
>>>
>>> http://www.sherweng.com/table.html
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Elecraft 
>>> [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On 
>>> Behalf Of Scott
>>> Gillen ZL1CHM
>>> Sent: Friday, December 11, 2015 1:09 PM
>>> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>>> Subject: [Elecraft] Receivers?
>>>
>>> Can anyone compare the receivers in the KX3 
>>> versus K3 versus K2?  Is there a
>>> significant difference?  I am considering the 
>>> KX3.
>>>
>>> 73
>>> Scott
>>>
>>> N0HOK / ZL1CHM
>>> Auckland New Zealand



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