[Premium-Rx] FW: New radio selection

Sat Jan 31 22:38:37 EST 2009

Hi Jim,

My K3 sounds the same as others I've heard which I consider to be  
absolutely terrible when using an external speaker and beyond  
absolutely terrible when using the internal speaker!

The 6KHz roofing filter in the K3 will provide an audio bandwidth of  
up to 3KHz and the FM 13KHz roofing filter will enable the DSP to  
provide the user with an audio bandwidth of approximately 4.5KHz I've  
been told by Elecraft.

The K3 provides outstanding CW performance but is an atrocious  
receiver for AM SWL or Broadcast listening in my opinion due to its  
audio quality, truly poor at this stage. Jim have you heard the K3's  
"clicks"? To show them up just obtain another radio, preferably  
analogue such as the Knwood R2000. Then tune both to the same local  
strong station in AM mode and listen to the audio of each  
simultaneously. Carefully adjust the volume of the two radios to match  
and you'll hear the K3 going  
"click......click......click..click....click" as Bs, Ts, Ks etc are  
pronounced in the voice of the received audio. Other users have  
verified this. The K3 has audio problems and this is just one of them.

Elecraft may rectify this in the future. The bugs which still exist in  
the radio are annoying also but these are slowly being ironed out by  
firmware upgrades. Lastly, the VFO tuning knob swish I find irritating  
- the constant sound of felt rubbing on plastic as one tunes. Yes you  
can adjust the VFO knob's resistance provided by the felt but the  
swish will persist.

Swish swish, click click.....

Shane White
VK5ABQ

On 01/02/2009, at 1:52 PM, Jim Garland wrote:

>
> The comments about brick wall filters and CW copy are well-taken,  
> but I
> believe some of the newer ham transceivers -- e.g., the Elecraft K3,  
> Ten-Tec
> Orion I and II, and the Yaesu FT2000, plus others I'm not familiar  
> with,
> have ways to smooth out the filter edges to minimize ringing. The  
> Elecraft
> K3, in particular, has excellent CW copy down to a bandwidth of 50  
> Hz, which
> is truly remarkable.
>
> On the subject of the AM fidelity of the K3: my K3 has the 6 kHz  
> roofing
> filter and the AM DSP bandwidth can be increased to 5 kHz, not 4 kHz  
> as
> previously noted. I believe, but am not sure, that the BW can be  
> increased
> further with the wider 13 kHz roofing filter. I play the audio  
> output into
> an external audio amp with bookshelf speakers and the fidelity is  
> excellent,
> comparable to or better than any of my other receivers. I wonder if  
> the
> gentleman who is selling his K3 because of low fidelity has a  
> problem with
> his radio?
>
> Jim Garland W8ZR
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: premium-rx-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:premium-rx-
>> bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Tim Shoppa
>> Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 6:20 PM
>> To: premium-rx at mailman.qth.net; michaelob666 at ntlworld.com
>> Subject: Re: [Premium-Rx] New radio selection
>>
>>>> Other users have done the same.  But, I query, what have been the
>>>> comparable standards of comparison?  If it's other ham gear, then  
>>>> that
>> is
>>>> frankly not a big deal.  I have used some of industry's best and I
>> reckon
>>>> my ears and fingers know a good set or two.  Once you have used
>> commercial
>>>> and military radios made by the likes of Racal, Redifon, Plessey,
>> Skanti,
>>>> Marconi, Dansk Radio, Collins, Siemens and Rohde & Schwarz, all  
>>>> made
>> for
>>>> the high end of the professional market, the likes of Icom, Kenwood
>> and
>>>> Yaesu pale significantly, though in fairness the very latest  
>>>> offerings
>>>> from Icom have been a great improvement.
>>
>> I am overall happy using ham gear on the ham bands. Compared to
>> the commercial/military rigs, the ham rigs have completely  
>> appropriate
>> AGC systems for a wide variety of signal strengths popping up and
>> going away in crowded bands. They also have tuning rates and
>> bandwidths that are right for the ham CW and SSB modes. They suck
>> pretty bad for AM - AGC hang times and bandwidths on any ham rig
>> from the SSB era onward are hardly optimal for AM.
>>
>> The commercial/military rigs shine for "channelized" operation,
>> sitting on one frequency, one station for extended periods. They
>> do not work so well tuning around a narrow band filled with
>> widely varying signal strengths - AGC hang on every commercial
>> or military rig, whether short or long action is just wrong for this
>> sort of band scanning. And they also seem to miss the boat with  
>> tuning
>> rates.
>>
>> There is one trend that both ham and commercial/military rigs
>> have been following for decades, that is unfortunate for CW  
>> reception:
>> the trend has been very much towards brick wall IF filters, which  
>> have
>> wonderful specs but in the ears they result in horrible ringing,  
>> making
>> it very tiresome to do CW on bands with lots of QRN's for extended
>> periods.
>> IMHO both ham and commercial/military rigs are misusing DSP  
>> techniques
>> to go even more in the direction of brick wall filtering with  
>> wonderful
>> specs but horrible listenability. My solution to this trend is my
>> own homebrew receiver with a homebrewed crystal filter designed for
>> linear phase response.
>>
>> Tim N3QE
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