[Elecraft] KX-3 Powered speaker suggestions?

[Grant Youngman]

I’ve tried several powered speakers on my KX3.   Currently, I use a (discontinued) Sony SRS-X33 I bought at Best Buy when I got the KX3 a few years ago.  I use it wired.  Plays really well if you EQ out all the low end.  It isn’t large, but it is relatively heavy.   Last year I dropped almost $200 on a highly recommended FOXL Dash 7.  While I really like how it sounds, and it’s slimmer and much lighter than the Sony and packs better in the Go Bag,  it’s a monster of an RF generator.  So it’s useless.  If your hand is anywhere near it you become the antenna.  Probably has a DC-DC converter in there that is completely unfiltered and unshielded.  The Sony is dead quiet.  I have another thingy around here somewhere, also recommended, and inexpensive, which is so flimsy I managed to break it after about a months use.  And the audio from it was thin and sub-par anyway.

All of that said, I’ve never had an issue with KX3-level RF getting into any of these.  I do use my KX3 at home, but even then it’s “backyard portable”, into simple wire antennas, without any concern about grounding/bonding/etc.  My wire antennas use the feed coax as the counterpoise, with a choke right at the KX3.   And I haven’t had any RF issues with any of these.

There may of course be other issues,  But it could simply be the speakers themselves.  The problem is you could try 5 of them before you find one that’s RF quiet and doesn’t act like a modulation monitor.

Grant NQ5T

> On Aug 3, 2020, at 9:58 PM, Ron Manfredi <wa2eio at optonline.net> wrote:
> 
> I prefer to operate without headphones, but find the audio output from my KX-3 to be too weak to be usable, and the rigs' audio amp is not up to driving an external speaker very well.   I tried both an amplified Motorola speaker and a small MFJ unit, but when using SSB (10-15 Watts) at home into a beam or into a dummy load I can hear myself quite clearly in the speaker, so RF is getting in somehow.   (the rig's Monitor function is not turned on!)   I have tried ferrites on both the power and audio lines to the speaker, but they have not helped.   This is while using an Astron RS-35 linear supply for both the rig and the speaker.    Any suggestions, or powered speaker recommendations?
> 
> Ron,   WA2EIO.