[Elecraft] P3 vs SDR-IQ

[dmb at lightstream.net]

Hello John,

> Phil
>
> So….you’re okay using “fixed tune” where your VFO window moves
> off-centre, and heads off
> towards the edge of the screen - at this point you can’t see whats ahead
> of you because you’re
> near the edge of the pan adapter. If you go any further, you fall off the
> edge, and it plonks you back
> in the centre, the waterfall refreshes, and you lose your waterfall
> history. That’s okay ?

Not only okay, it's what I prefer. As primarily a CW op, I tend to stick
to the bottom 30-40 KHz of any given band. In my case, I don't care what's
above the top of that range. What I DO care about is the positions of the
stations within that 30/40 KHz window. After a few minutes of operation, I
get to know who is where, (think of it as a band context) and when a new
station appears, it is more easily noticed. As I tune around within that
30 KHz segment, the waterfall history of all signals is preserved. It's
all about a stable context.

>
> Wouldn’t it be better if your VFO window remained centred in the pan
> adapter, even if you tuned up
> the band ? so you can see equally whats going on above and below your
> frequency ?

Not for me.

Yes, you can
> do that in tracking mode…but then we get back to the issue of it
> resetting and removing the
> averaging feature.

> If you haven’t tried an SDR radio that can do both - “fixed" and
> “tracking" at the same time, perhaps
> you should try, and see what you’re missing out on.

Been there -- and still have an SDR1000, FLEX-5000A, FLEX6300, and HPSDR
(original TAPR cards) sitting around here. The original PowerSDR's
limitation of moving the band around while keeping the signal centered was
a continual irritation. Once PowerSDR was re-written and the "CTUN"
function was added, HPSDR and ANAN users were able to tune across a
stationary band segment without losing context. I note that Flex Radio
chose that method of tuning for SmartSDR and the 6000 series as well. I
agree completely with Jim's (K9YC) last paragraph where he states that
"The P3 is a VERY versatile instrument" -- and I've spent considerable
time using and operating most of the significant alternatives.

If the clever guys
> at Elecraft can come up with
> a firmware update that will allow you to do both…simultaneously, would
> you choose to rather have your
> VFO window jump off the edge every time you get to the end, as in “fixed
> tune” ?

Yes, I would for the reasons stated above.

Perhaps they could
> give us a menu choice of all three options - “fixed tune”,
> “tracking” and “fixed tracking”. Would you stifle
> the opportunity of having this menu choice ?
>

More choices and options would be great, though I can appreciate that this
would not be a trivial task (that never stops those clever Elecraft guys
though)

> I better stop, I’m starting to feel like I’m repeating myself :-) Have
> a good weekend fella’s.
>
> 73
> John
>

73, Dale
WA8SRA