[Elecraft] [KX3] PX3 display not sensitive
David Anderson
gm4jjj at yahoo.co.uk
Fri Jul 31 09:05:12 EDT 2015
Beware the noise blanker can introduce a lot of false products with strong signals. For example on 144 MHz I have the PX3 NB on and it does cut out display of powerline noise, but as soon as a strong signal appears on the band the noise level bounces up and down way beyond the actual signal. So it is a balancing act like so many things.
I don't have a problem with the sensitivity of the waterfall here, I will say the viewing angle is a big narrow and I do lose sight of the waterfall when not viewing it straight on sometimes.
Perhaps you could post a photo or video of the problem you are seeing John.
73
David Anderson GM4JJJ
> On 31 Jul 2015, at 12:29, Matt Maguire <matt.vk2rq at gmail.com> wrote:
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> 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.
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> 73, Matt VK2RQ
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> On Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 4:06 AM -0700, "John Kramer" <jkramer at iafrica.com> wrote:
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> 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
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> 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
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> On Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 1:32 AM -0700, "John Kramer" <jkramer at iafrica.com> wrote:
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> 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 ?
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> 73
> John, ZS5J C91J A25J
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