[CQ-Contest] RX Heresy?

[MM0BQI]

Great question Pete, I thought I would offer my experience as a 'cannon 
fodder' part time contester. (100w to some low wires in the centre of 
Edinburgh).

I had my Mk5 (With Inrad's) and K3 side by side for almost a year and for me 
the K3 wins hands down as a contest radio.

I love the Mk5 and I was really comfortable with it, under usual DXing type 
operation I found very little difference.

However when it comes to contesting on crowded bands, like the recent RTTY 
and CW contests, the K3 allowed me to work stations I could not decode/copy 
with the MK5.  The K3 seems to be able to filter out so much more of the 
unwanted signal and that for me meant more Qs.

There is nothing I can do about antenna's at this location so the K3 has 
been a means of improving my QSO count.

If I had the money and space I would have both in the shack but sadly the 
Mk5 has now been sold.

73

Jim,  MM0BQI







----- Original Message ----- 

From: "Pete Smith" <n4zr at contesting.com>
To: "CQ Contest" <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2010 1:46 PM
Subject: [CQ-Contest] RX Heresy?


>I have watched with some amazement as the Elecraft K3 has seemingly
> taken over the top dog's spot among contest radios, both among the top
> ops and the rest of us.
>
> This impels me to wonder, though - how much does improved RX strong
> signal performance really improve your ability to score in contests?  My
> suspicion (showing my going-in bias) is that most of us have long since
> developed responses to our receiving problems that tend to minimize the
> damage they do. Knowing when to abandon a run frequency, QSYing just a
> bit ("skootching"), riding the gain instead of using AGC, all of these
> devices have been useful since the dawn of time.
>
> And so the question - how much do serious, full-time, top-ten contesters
> feel that improve RX hardware has really improved their scoring ability,
> compared to other improvements in their stations over the years?
>
> -- 
> 73, Pete N4ZR
>
> The World Contest Station Database, updated daily at 
> www.conteststations.com
> The Reverse Beacon Network at http://reversebeacon.net, blog at 
> reversebeacon.blogspot.com
>
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