[Elecraft] [K3] DUAL PB and Diversity

[Gary Smith]

Al,

Nice read. I agree wholeheartedly with 
you. I had never used the APF/DUAL PB 
until Wayne, I believe it was, mentioned 
it some time back. I'd tried it in the 
beginning but wasn't skilled using the 
radio then and it was left by the wayside. 

I had used Diversity often and with great 
success, it always was a plus for me and 
any insertion loss was certainly either 
made up for by adding the preamp or at the 
least by the increased quality of the 
signal received. In my case I have the 
200Hz filters in the main & Sub Rx board 
and often run the width down as tightly as 
possible and if I must, adjust the RF gain 
to compensate for band conditions and I 
don't find any ringing.  If the RF 
adjustment is causing a loss with band 
conditions, I open up the width a little 
and still use the RF, but not as 
aggressively.

With that, I miss nothing in there and 
have as tight a width as possible with 
excellent tone from my received signals. 
Add to that the magnificence of the SubRx 
and It's genius. I would never be without 
the Sub Receiver, it's to me, absolutely 
essential for me to copy as best is 
possible.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate 
it.  

73,

Gary
KA1J

> As has been the case for the past several years the only K3 control I
> touched during the CW SS was the tuning knob because there was never
> any reason to futz with anything else. Whatever settings I had simply
> worked for every condition during the weekend, and besides, I always
> seemed to be focused on signals and never on the rig itself, thanks to
> this ability of the K3 to vanish while you're using it. This year I
> operated with DUAL PB for the entire contest. With the context
> bandwidth set to 500 Hz it sounded tight and open at the same time...
> really interesting... and I found it to be free of ringing. The K3 is
> so highly configurable and DUAL PB is just one more way to make it
> sound consistently fresh. 
> 
> Tonight I started thinking about the next contest -- the best contest
> of the year, may I say-- which is the 160 meter contest in less than
> two weeks, and so I set up the N6RK receiving loop and diversity
> reception. In so doing, I reminded myself of the major reason why I
> got the K3 all those years ago. As I type this I'm listening to 80 in
> diversity and it's almost spooky hearing signals swim around in the
> soundstage of my headphones. What would have been a deep fade turns
> into the gentle movement of the signal from left (main receiver on the
> horizontal) to right (sub on the loop) and back again. Amazing. If you
> haven't tried diversity, it's worth the effort. There's KI6BZT in
> Oakland, slightly biased toward the left headphone, occasionally
> leaking right of center, talking to K6UIP in Encinitas slammed to the
> right. And sure enough, Neil says he's on a vertical antenna. And
> further down the band, at 3508, an HK0 calling CQ, who I don't think I
> could have had a chance of hearing without diversity.
> 
> I'm sure I'll hear you on the 160, thanks to DUAL PB and diversity,
> but you probably won't hear me (but that's not the K3's fault;
> unfortunately, I'm on a very small city lot). I'll make my 50
> contacts, and I hope you're one of them.
> 
> Al  W6LX
> 
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