[Elecraft] Need a second set of eyes... WAS: Re: Price Increase Alert for Feb 4th.

[Jim Brown]

On Thu,1/28/2016 11:04 AM, Clay Autery wrote:
> OK...  so I don't have time to complete my stack of cash for my K-Line
> order...  I've paired it back.  Anyone interested in offering me a
> second pair of eyes to see if I am making any glaring mistakes in
> spec'ing out my reduced order?
>
> Here's a link to a screen shot of my shopping cart:
>
> *http://www.montac.com/pics/Elecraft_Draft_Order.jpg
> *
> MH-2  Hand Mic
Waste of money. Go with a Yamaha CM500 or Koss SB-45 headset with boom 
mic. Both are comfortable, and both headphones and mic sound great.

> SS30DV  Power Supply

Any regulated PSU that will do 20A at 13.8V is fine.

> And here's the filters I am going to end up with:
> FL1 - Reserved for FM/Reserved for FM
> FL2 - KFL3A-6K/KFL3A-6K  (AM/eSSB)

I would put off buying a 6 kHz filter until you know you need it. The K3 
is sufficiently stable that AM sounds quite good with SSB decoding.

> FL3 - KFL3A-2.8_2.7sw/KFL3A-2.8_2.7sw  (trade-up to 2.8kHz/8-pole on
> both receivers)

Definitely NOT on the 2nd RX. The virtue of the 2.8 kHz filter is less 
ripple in the passband, which results in a bit less incidental AM in 
RTTY mode. That only matters in the main board.  And when we run 
diversity, it's usually to pull out super weak CW signals, so I wouldn't 
worry about matching between RX for that one.

> FL4 - KFL3A-400/KFL3A-400  (CW... yes, this "no-code" is diligently
> working to achieve 25wpm before the end of summer)
> FL5 - KFL3A-250/KFL3A-250 (CW)

As others have observed, remember that these are ROOFING filters, whose 
function is to protect the DSP from super-strong signals outside the 
passband. Primary IF filtering is provided in DSP. The two filters do, 
of course, cascade when they are nearly the same bandwidth, resulting in 
steeper skirts.

400 Hz is the desired bandwidth for RTTY because it has less phase shift 
in the passband than a narrower filter.  It's also a good CW filter. BUT 
-- I am a very active contester and DXer, and I mostly use the 250 Hz 
filter, and that's the one that I have in both RX.

You also want the KXV3B if it's not stock with the radio, both because 
it gives you the preamp for 6/10/12M, and a patch point for the RX 
signal path.

73, Jim K9YC

73