[Elecraft] [KX3] PX3 display not sensitive

[Matt Maguire]

Another thing to try is the noise blanker in the PX3. At the moment I have an arcing power pole down the road from my place spewing out lots of garbage on the air, which can be seen on the PX3. If I enable the PX3's noise blanker, it really cleans up the display and lets me see the underlying signals much more clearly.

73, Matt VK2RQ




On Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 4:06 AM -0700, "John Kramer" <jkramer at iafrica.com> wrote:










Matt 
Thanks for your response, really appreciate it.
1. Yes, the RX IQ is enabled - I think if it wasn’t enabled I wouldn’t see anything on the PX3.It is working normally, it’s just that the trace left on the waterfall is extremely faint for a signalthat is 20 - 30 db above the noise floor. The Flex and PSDR will show a clear trace at close to the noise level or just a few db above it. Maybe I am expecting too much from what isessentially a portable radio and portable panadapter.2. Yes, I have fiddled with the REF and SCALE, but can’t improve on the factory settings. I can bring up the sensitivity, but that introduces noise on the waterfall, and the wanted signalis now buried in the noise on the waterfall.3. No, I haven’t tried the side nulling procedure. Having bought the KX3 and PX3 factory built,I would have thought it would have been done prior to shipping ? But I don’t see images oranything like that which would point to this being a problem. It appears pretty wellbalanced. I don’t have an XG3 to calibrate, but might try using the built-in generator in the PX3
Thanks again for the reply, and have a good weekend
73John, ZS5J   C91J   A25J






On 31 Jul 2015, at 11:25 AM, Matt Maguire <matt.vk2rq at gmail.com> wrote:
That doesn't sound normal. Three things to check:- in the KX3, do you have the RX I/Q set to Enabled- on page 16 of the PX3 manual, check the REF and SCALE settings- have you done the side and nulling procedure on page 26? Maybe the gain settings there are not sane.
73, Matt VK2RQ




On Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 1:32 AM -0700, "John Kramer" <jkramer at iafrica.com> wrote:










I bought a new KX3 and PX3 factory built, 3 weeks ago. It is a great pair, but there are several 
annoying things. The one thing that I have issue with is the very poor “sensitivity” of the PX3.
I have 59 plus 10 signals on my KX3, however, on the PX3 waterfall the trace is very faint and
indistinct. This is on a signal more than 20db above the noise floor !!!
I really hate to have to compare, but on my Flex radio’s, you can see signals on the waterfall display 
that you can barely hear in the receiver. And when signals are reasonably strong, you can analyse 
the signal to a good degree - you can see if the transmitting station is splattering, overdriving etc
With the PX3 the sensitivity is quite poor - with a strong signal you can barely see and analyse 
the incoming audio. I have tried a number of settings, adjusting contrast etc but I can’t seem
to improve it, and guess it’s inherent in the firmware.
Am I missing something ? or can it be improved in a future firmware update ?

73
John, ZS5J  C91J  A25J
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