[Elecraft] K3S on RTTY

[Jeff Stai]

I haven't seen much here on the subject so I thought I would share my
experience from this past weekend in the RTTY Roundup.

We recently upgraded our multi-radio setup with two new K3S-es. Both were
operated in FSK-D mode, one at the 2125/2295 tones, and the other at
1445/1615. (That helps me sort them out in the headphones quicker.)

Both rigs get the FSK via the ACC port. One rig gets FSK via a Microham
box, the other by FSK cables with level shifters built by me.

I use Writelog as my contest logger in the mode that allows the K3 and K3S
sub Rx to appear as a second radio.

The K3S-es were connected via the USB interface. I used the K3S internal
sound card on both rigs. And the P3s were connected accordingly with the
special cable.

I have to say that - other than that one weirdness with the VFO B cursor I
posted about the other day - everything ran flawlessly. The internal sound
card decoded at least as well as my external cards do.

One thing I especially had my eye on was interference between the stations.
We run full power and we have experienced wideband interference between
20/40 and 40/80 RTTY that no amount of filtering seemed to conquer.

I'm happy to report that the interference is substantially reduced with the
new KSYN3A on board. I used to have to pick my transmitting spots very
carefully to avoid "bad zones" but now it is almost a non issue. (Woo hoo!)

Also, and this of course is subjective, but QRM from neighboring stations
also seemed to be substantially reduced. At least, I didn't have to QSY as
much as I usually do to get away from someone's gudge. I'll have a better
sense for this after a few more events.

73 jeff wk6i

-- 
Jeff Stai ~ wk6i.jeff at gmail.com
Twisted Oak Winery ~ http://www.twistedoak.com/
Facebook ~ http://www.facebook.com/twistedoak