[RTTY] (no subject)

[Ed Muns]

SARTG WW RTTY Contest

Call: W0YK
Operator(s): W0YK
Station: W0YK

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: CA
Operating Time (hrs): 18
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Pts   Mults
-------------------------
   80:   66   635    22
   40:  183  1980    45
   20:  311  3510    71
   15:   40   455    22
   10:    0     0     0
-------------------------
Total:  600  6580   160  Total Score = 1,052,800

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

This will likely be a check-log as I forgot to sign '/6'.  I realized this a
couple hours in but didn't change so I wouldn't mess up other people's logs.

Conditions met expectations ... poor.  Mainly I wanted to pound on the
Elecraft
K3 as one of the radios.  I ran a bandwidth of 250Hz which allowed the 250Hz
roofing filter to play, making the DSP's job easier.  QRM from the second
radio was much less severe in the K3 compared to the ProIII with its 15KHz
roofing filter.  (I haven't yet installed the INRAD 4-5KHz roofing filter
mod in the ProIII I used in SARTG.)

Both radios ran cool, although the ProIII fan could be heard with the
headphones off.  The K3 fans are super quiet, and while running, they were
virtually inaudible.  The K3 Dual-Tone Filter puts a 50Hz DSP filter around
each tone and provides better filtering than the ProIII Twin Peak Filter. 
However, I have yet to find an example where the K3 outperforms the ProIII
in signal copy, except for its greater immunity to large, close-in signals.

I swapped radios between the two bands I was on throughout the contest to
get a comparison.  For comparing weak signal reception, I connected the RX
Antenna Out from the K3 to the RX Antenna jack on the ProIII.  Then, by
switching the RX ANT on and off in the K3, I could alternately view the same
signal on each radio. 
They were very similar on weak signals fading below the noise floor.  It
seemed that the K3 was a bit better, but that is subjective.  The MMTTY
waterfall is narrower (each tone) with the K3 50Hz tone filters compared to
the ProIII twin peaking circuit.  Also the null between the tones is much
deeper on the K3. 
Again, I couldn't find any substantial examples where one performed better
than the other, save for IMD dynamic range.  However, the robust
configuration capability of the K3 and its built-in RTTY features make
interconnection far simpler than the ProIII or other radios.

73,
Ed - W0YK