Sunday, May 31, 2015

It's been just too long since my last post!

New Elecraft synthesizer
Old synthesizer board
The time sure has been flying here at VE3WDM! I just can't believe it has been over a month since my last post. I have been off and on the radio more off than on, not sure why other than the evenings seem to get away from me. As for the weekends it's sunny out and the weather has finally changed from snow and cold to nice sunny days with great weather need I say more..........guess what I am saying is Julie and I have been out and about. My last post was when I modified the K3 and since then I also installed the new Synthesizer board as well. I have not even had a chance to really give the new addition to the rig a workout. I have been reading very positive reviews on the Elecraft user group site. I am looking forward to getting on the air and trying this new board out. This weekend the WPX CW contest is on and that would had been a great time to check out how this new and improved synthesizer board improved things!
The board installed in the K3


4 comments:

pa0o said...

hi interesting
will it bring a significant lower noise floor?
does it get rid of the rattling noise at 50MHz when dialling over the band?
73 Jaap PA0O

pa0o said...

the new board looks a lot simpler
I would buy it but 2 times 220$ is too much ...

VE9KK said...

Good evening Joop and very nice to hear from you, I copied the info from the Elecraft website that gives you the rundown on the new board.
The KSYN3A synthesizer module is a completely new design that improves on the original KSYN3 in several ways:

ULTRA-LOW PHASE NOISE
The KSYN3A significantly improves the K3's already excellent RX and TX phase noise at close carrier spacings. This in turn noticeably improves the K3's top performing close spaced Rx dynamic range, yielding even better weak signal detection in the presence of strong signals.

FASTER CW BREAK-IN AND MORE ACCURATE CW ELEMENT TIMING

EXCELLENT MECHANICAL STABILITY
The KSYN3A is virtually immune to both physical vibration and magnetic coupling, and operates over a very wide temperature range.

600-METER COVERAGE
The KSYN3A extends VFO tuning down to 100 kHz, with sensitivity gradually falling off below 450 kHz. Transmit output is as high as 1.0 mW for use with a suitable external amplifier. (Note: 600-m and below operation also requires the KBPF3 and KXV3 options.)
Have a great week Joop.
Mike

Bert, PA1B said...

Hello Mike, fast break in is excellent for operating on the edge, with very low power.
Have been experimenting, for the experiment, with an indoor Cylinder dipole of 15" in the CQ WW WPX CW contest. Worked with 3.6 W down to 72 mW. hi. 73, Bert