[Elecraft] Reminder: Most Elecraft rigs can scan "dead" bands for signals

[Wayne Burdick]

Those of you who are new users of an Elecraft K2, K3/K3S, KX2, or KX3 may not know about the scanning and channel-hoping feature that’s common to all of these rigs. Scanning a seemingly “dead” band segment can reveal signals as they come up, allowing you to do other things (work out, paint, dust, reread “Ecotopia” by Ernest Callenbach, brew an IPA, whatever). 

You might think of scanning as an eyes-free panadapter. Well, I do.

The basic scanning mode keeps the receiver muted until signals appear. It’s a real ear-saver. In addition, the K2, K3/K3S, and KX3 have a “live scan” feature that simply scans continuously with the receiver audio unmuted. This is especially useful on bands where very weak signals might appear from nowhere out of low-level atmospheric noise, say 15 meters.

All of these radios also support hopping among a set of labeled memories. This is typically used on 60 meters or other channelized bands, e.g. those with repeater allocations.

For details, see “Scanning” in your owner’s manual's table of contents.

Tips:

- If you’re scanning for CW signals, perhaps this coming Friday in honor of Morse’s birthday (hint), set the bandwidth very narrow (50-200 Hz). 

- If there’s a lot of band noise, turn off the preamp. This will give the scanning algorithm more audio dynamic range to work with.

- Scanning steps match those set up for the VFO knob; using fine steps will miss fewer signals but take longer to scan the segment of interest.

- Configure all of the above *before* saving setups to memory as scan start/stop end points (VFO A and B). Later, you can recall your favorite scan ranges preconfigured for various band conditions.

73,
Wayne
N6KR