Topband: Rig Question

[Jim Brown]

On 6/19/2014 12:00 PM, Mike Waters wrote:
> Is anyone here controlling their Elecraft K3, etc. with their PC?

Yes. I mostly do rig control with N1MM for contesting, but also use 
WSJT-X for JT65 and JT9, and DXLab Commander for general logging. N1MM 
integrates the mouse with its own band map, which you can fill with your 
own spots as you S&P, and also spots from the cluster if you choose to 
use it. The P3 has its own screen, and there's an optional add-in to 
provide SVGA output. The SVGA has its own FFT, with much greater 
resolution and waterfall time than the P3 alone.

The P3 does NOT feed a computer, so I don't know how you would access it 
with a mouse. But the P3 has two cursors, that can be set anywhere on 
the display. And if you press the knob for the cursor, the rig will jump 
to the frequency of the cursor. The P3 can be set for any frequency span 
between 2 kHz and 200 kHz.

The K3 and KX3 are SDRs with knobs. You CAN feed the IF both to the P3 
and an I/Q decoder box, and from there to a computer, so whatever SDR 
software you like can talk to the K3 serial port.  An important 
difference between the K3 and other SDRs is that it has MUCH less phase 
noise on TX.

Another advantage of the P3 over an SDR and computer is that the SDR 
software can be very processor intensive. Not a problem with a fast new 
computer, but can be a major limitation with an older one.

73, Jim K9YC