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7O6T Jemen comming soon (QRM pileups expected.. / K3 on 70MHz

http://www.yemen2012.com/

they start at 21:00 UTC 30 April






Today again there was ES on 70MHz  not here but west G was working to CT.  And I found I was not ready for it. Got a bad  audio report when calling USB very bad report.

Now after running WSPR mode on 70.091 since the end of January  many many WSPR reports are received and decoded using the Flex1500 and WSPR V2.21. I got it reasonable stable and the time-on counts is over 1200hours already.

Now the ES season is approaching but operating  CW or Phone is a headache.  The internal keyer is useless, the SDR time delay make it impossible to give code I could not send my own callsign I tried it impossible!  And in the past I have used keyers  that nobody could use. CQ-ing using my tones is way easier then  let the code pass the SDR processing...
In phone the output is too low few microwatts?  in digimode tune or CW  the level is normal about 0dBm.
The microphone gain must be set very low or the audio will be totally  distorted.  But even then the peaks  are too low to drive my XVTR that needs about 1mW  0dBm.
The output using the external mike must be way down 1mW level for unknown reason I could not find a good setting.

Tuning with mouse I never real got used to it, it is not easy to just swing over the band although there is a special tuning wheel for that i do not have it.  The complications setting audio VAC in combination with W7  is a puzzle. Once working don't touch anything! The regular need for a reset of Power SDR is getting on my nerves.
Not  being able to work split frequency with XVTR is bad.
An extra handicap on 70MHz  where some countries in EU have different band segments.
It is all too much a handicap in operation for me. I like fast CW and fast overs in phone.
Where are all the users of the Flex1500?  I never heard or worked a ham using a Flex1500?  are they all satisfied?  Am I doing  something wrong here? I only know Ross VK1UN  T51/ T61  he has one and experience same problems.
Al together it was a nice SDR experiment I like some things of SDR and it has the future but the 1500 badly needs improvements.

So why not then use the K3  and its KXV3  connections for that.

I still can use the external RX antenna for the K9AY lowband receive.
That is connected to RX-ANT in separate.
I did that and compliments to Elecraft  for the simple logic and good setup of XVTR use. 
Just CONFIG  set XV1  on =yes
XV1 RF  70   (70MHz   start of band
XV1 IF   28   (28MHz)
XV1 PWR L 1.47  ( 1.50 mW is max  to use the KXV3 XVTR out )
 XV1 OFS  -.20     ( my local oscillator needs correction)

connect the XVTR 28MHz  Rx/TX  to  KXV3 XVTR-out
connect T/R  cable RCA  to PTT-out   ( pull down to TX)

and that was it!   The Band switch now has an extra Band added
called XVTR 1   so tap up the band from 50MHz will go to 70MHz  now.
Split freq does work  of course  why shouldn't it?? 

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