[Elecraft] GCBAD [K3, P3]

[Ian White]

>
>Vic try putting the sub rx on the dx and tune with the main vfo.  You
won't
>need split and the dx is probably not going to move.
>

If "DX" holds any of its original meaning of "DX = Distant, DX =
Difficult", then listening to the DX station on VFOB is a very bad idea.


Although the K3's two receivers are identical in lab performance, they
are not identical in terms of accessibility and ease of use. Apart from
the VFOB knob itself, other subRX controls can only be accessed by first
pressing the BSET button.

Why is this important? Because you need to copy *every detail* that the
DX stations sends! No matter how difficult it may be (and today we have
to include a high probability of deliberate jamming) you need to copy
the DX station's every instruction about where and when to call - and
when he comes back to you, you need to hear that he copied your callsign
correctly. 

That is why you should always listen to the DX station on your best
receiver. The one that has all of its controls right there to hand. The
MAIN receiver. 

If you listen to the DX station on the subRX, many of the important
controls like SHIFT, WIDTH and APF can only be accessed by pressing the
BSET button first - and while you're messing with that, Murphy will
ensure that you miss teh DX station sending something important. 

But tuning the pileup is completely different. To plan your next call,
you need to tune quickly to find the frequency where the station
currently being worked is sending "5NN" or "fi-ni" - and that is all. No
other details are important, and because pileups are so fast-moving and
volatile, you won't even have time for any other controls. So why waste
the main RX on listening the pileup? 

It really does seem perverse... and you probably know what I'm going to
say next ;-)  The only reason why anyone might want to adopt such a
poor, counterproductive strategy is to avoid being caught out by the
K3's dysfunctional SPLIT control.


73 from Ian GM3SEK