[Elecraft] K3 for SWL?

[John Meade W2XS]

I just completed a 2 year low-key effort to log an AM BCB station (or
stations - day and night) on every frequency from 530 kHz to 1710 kHz. I
mostly used a Hallicrafters SX-100 and a Hammarlund HQ-145A, both
highly-sensitive and well-calibrated vintage receivers.  To get the hardest
ones, though, the K3 with its synchronous detection was invaluable. For
example, WCBS radio is a powerful clear-channel station on 880 kHz located
here in NYC. Using the K3 and USB, I could copy WLS in Chicago on 890 kHz.
Trying to listen on LSB resulted in a lot of QRM.

I feed my antenna into the "RX-in" jack which bypasses the input filters.  I
sure wish the KX2 had this feature. I use a Bose Soundlink speaker system
plugged into the rear headphone jack. A local oldies station sounds very
nice (although a bit restricted in the treble due to the DSP bandwidth). I
used headphones for the hardest stations.

1620 was the last entry in my log.  Usually, I heard several weak stations
at the same time.  Finally, one night, QSB was in my favor and I heard one
of the stations sign their call letters. Sometimes it took a long time to
identify the stations. I heard stations up and down the east coast and
Canada.  I clearly heard KCJJ in Iowa on 1630 early one evening.

This was actually a lot of fun, especially when the ham bands were closed
down. I was surprised at how crummy (dirty and wide) some of the stations
looked on the P3.

This helped a lot:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1160_AM

Change the 1160 to whatever frequency you are interested in. I would then
jump to the selected station's website.  If they had a "what's on now" link,
then I could verify that that was indeed the station that I was tuned to.

73,  John W2XS



--
View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/K3-for-SWL-tp7626390p7626416.html
Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com.