 |
|
Please login
help/register
|
06:32:28 UTC 27 May 2012
       Donate |
My own weg page for manuals downloading is at www.ad4c.us
Bienvenido - Welcome - Bienvenue - Bem-vindo - ترحيب- ようこそخوشآمدی- Benvingut - Benvenuto - Willkommen - Maligayang pagdatingПриветствовать – witamy - bun venit- добредошли- welkom
YOU SAW IT AT DAYTON,YOU LIKED IT, NOW LETS SEE WHAT OTHERS SAYS ABOUT IT: CLICK ON THE NEXT LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FT3UlV1tFNA TWO MORE LINKS TO HEAR WHAT THE VENDOR SAYS ABOUT IT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXHW6-EeL3c http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLgyQGRazGw
This is my K3 TX audio bandwith when I set the TX ESSB BW to 3.0 Khz using the W2ENY base mic.For the ones who might be interested to know how I set my TX EQ levels for this mic,these are the settings: 50Hz at -16 100Hz at + 16 200Hz at minus 2 400 and 800 Hz at zero 1600Hz at +6 2400Hz at +9 3200Hz at +12 But when I change the TX profile for DX/Contesting, then the settings are these: 50Hz,100Hz and 200Hz are all at minus 16 400 and 800Hz are still at zero 1600Hz at +9 2400Hz at +12 3200Hz at -15 With these high pitch settings I made a very well articulate sharp audio to brake the bands QRM/QRN and also the pile-ups. When I am not dxing, I keep ragchewing with many friends who are like me on ESSB. Read the opinions of users on eham: http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/6673
and this is my K3 TX audio bandwith with same TX EQ settings but using instead the Yamaha CM-500 headphones/boom mic showing a better balanced audio. Well this is the last test I have done with my K3 on ESSB, inyecting an audio sweep generator that was sweeping from 20 to 4500 Hz and taking the TX bandwith at my Drake R8 receiver tuned to same freq and its BW opened at 4 Khz, As you all can see its a perfect well balanced flat response from 50 to 3900 Hz.
There is a very interesting article about ESSB,bandwith and intermod that I am sharing with all of you who come to read about me, here is the link to it : http://www.w8ji.com/transmitter_splatter.htm If you want to see this year Orlando hamfest pictures that I took, go tomy big pictures collection click on the following link: http://community.webshots.com/user/ad4c2006
Before starting to read my bio,I want you to click on these six links and see the wonderful movies about hamradio that make us feel proud of what we do for the community.
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/radio_hams_in_old_cinema.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z9136_Nhh4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cMviApcohw&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3gRWG-EUGU Now do you want to know how many radio amateurs operators are there in this world? click on this link and you will find it out: http://www.n0hr.com/ham_radio_population.htm And for the ones who loves to spend a weekend in a hamfest buying,selling or trading ham stuff,this is a good link to see the Orlando hamfest event in February this year. It was very crowded and we all had fun in it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7S6IY11Qhc Beijing,the capital of China is one of the world places where the amount of hams is increasing rapidly.This 38 minutes video on youtube show us how they mount their antennas at the capital,a zone of China where there are the most of buildings of 20 to 30 floors.How to set up an antenna over there ? this movie will show you how they manage.This documentary was recorded in 2008 but is now when they showed it to the world. This is a different world,a different style of doing things ,they show us how well they manage to mount vertical antennas where is almost impossible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtfZJN3cbVIy And finally for the ones who still believe the chinese are not capable of building professional ham gear,check this next link to see the first HF amp designed and built in China:
As far back as I can remember, hamradio has been my passion since I was a kid At age 13, I played with my dad's ham station one day he was at work knowing that was illegal in my country,but teenager is a teenager,I didn't care,just wanted to have fun and find by myself If I could do what he did everyday,then after figured out how to turn the receiver and separate AM transmitter on and tune them on at 40M,called cq pretending I was my old man,then suddenly a station who happened to be my father's friend answered my cq and asked If I was (he thought I was my dad) sick because my voice sounded different like having a cold,I was scared and replied him telling certainly I was sick,but the guy didn't buy it and inmediately after we exchanged some reports and signed off,he called
my dad to his office and told him what he heard from work he gently asked If I was operating his station and I had no choice to tell him the truth otherwise I was going to be grounded for long time,my old man who always has been the best dad in the world and who always had all the patience with me and my brother instead of give me the punish I deserved for my wrong behavior,he realized my interest in been a ham operator,so he told me he was going to teach me everything about theory and practice to pass a ham test and after 3 months I was ready to make the test which I passed easily. Country regulations didn't let kids below 18 to own a ham licence and I had to be granted only the "second operator class" licence. I spent five years operating his station as CO2DR mainly in cw to develop my code skills by his advice,before the ham test he sent me to a morse code academy for 3 months to learn it and I graduated at 25 wpm speed.I am glad he did it otherwise today I would not be a QSK operator,I can still receive by ears 60 wpm and send with my fist up to 50 wpm with a Vibroplex paddle. So,when I celebrated my 18 years of age I got my first "second class" ham licence with call CM2HB that I kept for many years still operating at my father's home working more than 200 countries from all over the world and wining several awards,like the AJD from Japan,all Russian republics,etc. In 1971 after married with my first wife (RIP) moved to eastern Habana and this was my very first AM/CW station.
The receiver at the left was a second world war Marconi with 22 tubes,very stable and good for cw.The TX at the center of the table was a second world war discontinued Aircraft Bendix radio with a pair of 807 tubes at the PA and another 807 as driver plus several 6SJ7 tubes as independent bands oscilators that I modified later and replaced the finals for 6146 and built inside a carrier control modulador with 12AX7 and a 6DE7.The small box between radio and mic with a handle on the top was my home made electronic keyer using two russian tubes and even the paddle I am using at that moment was home made as well. And underneath the table you can see also the home made as well power supply to feed the Bendix Tx. I was born at Habana,Cuba: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBw9_g7EuHc&feature=related where I graduated as Telecom Technician and worked on two way radio business for 25 years for different government enterprises.In 1991 looking for a better quality of life I emigrated to
the states a Motorola 800 Mhz two way radio Trunking system and retired after 20 years of service on 5/13/11. Now I am working again doing same kind of work but now for the county of Palm Beach maintaining the Motorola trunking 800 Mhz smart zone system.
In 1997 I became proudly american citizen.
For many years I have been a member of the
technical ragchewing with my friends about by first time the stations W2ONV (SK) and NU9N (www.nu9n.com) on the freq of 14178.If you want to know more about this enhanced mode of operation,click on this link: I am active in the 40 to 10 meter bands on SSB and CW modes. As part of my hobby I am the QSL manager of the following cuban stations: CO3RX and CO7EH. Starting 11/24/11 I WILL NO LONGER BE THE QSL MANAGER OF CO3TJ,SO PLEASE SEND HIM DIRECTLY YOUR QSL. If you have contacted any of these stations and need their QSL card,don't forget to include with your card the self addressed stamped envelope if you are within the states but if you are in other country,please don't send me IRC's,they are useless, just send me the proper amount of $USD to cover the expenses. I want to make myself clear on this matter, If you are a serious dx'er you are comitted to send me as I said before the SAE envelope with the proper stamp otherwise you won't get their QSL's cards.
My main radio at my shack is a K3 made in California at the Elecraft factory
that I use mainly for CW although I enjoy it also on ESSB. see the users review:http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/6673 and now see how is the assembly process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD8QNVkIirc This my personal review of the K3 after three years three months of use : Lets start saying that in 20 years as a ham operator in the US I have changed radios as drinking a glass of water daily. I am very picky with radios performance and the radio that won't meet those high performance standards today won't stay on my desk for long. So I have tested in these years more than 100 different radios from the three major brands from Japan as well as the 3 ones from the US. When I purchased my almost fully loaded K3 thanks to a very close friend of mine who pushed me hard to do the jump I was not too convinced that it was going to be a keeper because to be honest it was not a pretty radio but today three years after been using it I can tell it was a very smart choice to do it. This radio has an outstanding performance that no other can beat in the market, its been said that the new FTDX-5000 has a little better performance in the 2Khz BW dynamic range but I am not sure about that, my friend Julio AD4Z second place winer in the last CW CQ WW Contest had the chance to operate one last year in a contest and he told me there was no difference with his K3. So I can say firmly this is the radio for me after three years testing and comparing it against many other high performance radios. I have owned IC-756ProIII, FT-2000, TS-590,Flex-5000,TenTecOrion II and lately the IC-7600but none of themwere better than mymy K3. The good things like others has said about this radio: 1-Certainly and this is the best of all,the Elecraft technical support without a doubt has no comparison,its the best in the world. To give you an idea, first and only technical trouble I had with my K3 one year after the daily use,I did not realized I was connecting a non stereo plug at the rear speaker out socket and even it was warned at the mannual not to do it otherwise the RX PA would be damaged,it happened, I blew it up, fortunately this radio was designed by clever ham radio ops who though about everything so the headphones PA is a different one that remained alive and I could use still the radio, then I called the company for help and now comes the best part, they offered me to send the board where the PA is at the cost of the good PA IC plus shiping, total I think it was less than twenty bucks,the board arrived three days after and then we replaced it and sent them back the defective board. Tell me guys where in this planet there is a company that will do that with you to make you a happy guy again and have your radio back in full service in just three days? the answer is nowhere. The firmware upgrade in almost a monthly basis for years has been one of the best technical support as well, these guys from Elecraft not only support the K3 users but also "hears" all our suggestions and "wants" and modify the FW acording our wishes,its like having a brand new radio again after every upgrade. Although my K3 was built and aligned at the factory because of lack of time to do the assembly by myself I have to say there is nothing better for a ham than to put together his own radio, that way he will know part by part,board by board where everything is and how it will work,besides it will make him proud of his work when it be ready to be used. The spirit of puting together things like the old Heathkit company still is alive in the world. 2- Selectivity. This is the best part of its performance,without a doubt having tight roofing filters on the first IF combined with exelent performance DSP as second IF in a down conversion design is the only way to have a great selectivity. Everyday I operate my K3 I am still amazed of how well I can pick up weak stations in crowded bands or contests in the presence of very strong stations at only 2Khz away from my working freq. I tried that with the ProIII, the FT-2K,the TS-590,etcand it was mission impossible,now with the Orion II yes, I can do it but not so tight like with the K3. 3-NR This is for me the best noise reduction circuit so far,it can clear the band to allow picking up weak stations off the noise so well that any other radio will do it.Thanks to it I have been able to work dx stations that I never heard with the comparison radios I had on the desk. 4-NB Without a doubt this a well designed noise blanker and the best of all, it will not add any audio distorsion at all,in all the other radios I had here they all had distorsion specially if the received station was strong. Not with the K3 that besides been able to wipe out any ignition or man made noise will receive nice and clear. 5-Menu Some users has complained about how complicated the menu is.I don't agree with that statement,certainly there are many parameters you will have to set to your best operating needs but once you set them out,it won't be neccesary to be reseting them again,I use my K3 daily and I don't open the menu so often.Besides,today 90% of the radios on the market comes with a menu table to set their parameters for the best performance, so you have to live in the world of cars and drive one unless you prefer to ride on a bike. 6-Physical size Who can complain of a radio that has the perfect size for a DXpedition,a field day,a picnic,anywhere portable operation,for me this is the perfect size for any radio,in fact I don't like big radios like my Orion II,besides to take lot of space on the desk,they are not practical to be moved.When Elecraft enginers designed this K3,they had in mind not only a high performance but also a small portable size radio and I am sure most of all K3 users agree with that concept. 7-Display A well display that provides all the operating parameters needed in a standard radio.Nothing to complain of.In fact it reads more than anybody will need to know. 8-Knobs. What's wrong with knobs? For me there is nothing wrong,I am a fat guy and my fingers are thick, nevertheless I can touch one knob without changing the other beside, I can tell all knobs even been plastic are looking good although they should be litle brighter if we would like to make them look better.One thing I love is the fact that some of the knobs have three functions on the same control and that makes the functionality easier and smaller so you don't have to move your fingers all over the radio front panel. 9- Audio quality. I left this coment for the end because its been the complain of some users. To be completely honest there is nothing bad about the audio quality on my K3. Coming from the broadcast audio work that I spent for years and been an electronic and comunications technician for more than 40 years I know what bad and good audio is perfectly well, besides acording the last ear test a Dr did on me, I still receive from 40 to 15K on both of my ears. So the first thing I did on my K3 was a spectral analysis of the received audio and it was without using any RX EQfinding a well flat curve from 45 to 4000 Hz with less than 2% of distorsion and it was done taking a sample of the output speaker audio over an 8 ohms carbon resistor. I have been using my K3 with my Yamaha CM-500 over more than 48 hours on contests and I never felt tired of listening,the audio is pleasent, smooth and no distorsion at all, also I was part of a local dxpedition to peanut island last year and spend more than 48 hours constanly listening to all bands that were open and my ears were confortable and never had to remove the headphones off my head to have a ears rest.At home I use as well a good speaker from Radio Shack made years ago by Realistic that is discontinued but could be found on hamfests for 5 bucks,it responds from 80 to 7000Hz and it gives me the smooth nice audio.So I can firmly say there is not a problem with the received audio on my K3. If others have had some issues on their audios, I advice to test other K3's because the issue might be in your specific radio and there is nothing to blame K3's for just a particular radio. Onlything I am missing from my ProIII or from my Orion II is the spectrum scope but of course in a small package like the K3 there is no space inside for a screen like that.There is already a P3 panadapter on the market and in spite of my personal opinion that is little high in price, I am saving my penies to purchase one. Without a doubt Elecraft has gained among the hams comunity all over the world its respect for having designed and built a great radio that for years has been competing with high end high price radios and more and more days high dx/contestershas been selling their expensive radios to be replaced by K3's.That stands a reputable position for this radio. As I always said in my previous reviews,its an american radio that make us feel proud. Lets rise the cup and make a toastto Elecraft for all their sucess.We all wish you a long career producing better and better radios,73
My backup radio that I also use in my car is an Icom IC-7000 as you could see at the top picture of my shack and also here in a more detailed picture.
My analog PS for three years working with no problem is an Alinco DM-340MV 35A read the review: http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/273
My PalStar AT1KP 1.2KW antenna tuner
My Ameritron AL-80B amp that uses a single3-500Z see the users review: http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/448 My antennas at home as you can see at the next pictures, are a dual band"K" dipole for 20 and 40M and for the higher bands I use an AN99 vertical antenna that works pretty well on 10, 12, 15 and 17 meters with decent SWR and performance. Its at only 5 feet over the roof because of local HOA rules.
I got my brand new Ford Focus 2011 on second week of Dec 2010 and now by April 2012 I have installed my new HF/V/U radio,the IC-7000 with a hamstick at the trunk over a Diamond K-400 mount,here are the pictures of my new mobile:
I am the owner and control operator of the AD4C UHF repeater(second cabinet from right to left)
covering the whole palm beach county, the antennas for this repeater are one for the receiver at 500 feet high and one at 400 feet high for the transmitter allowing me not having to use duplexers.The ERP of this machine is 50W to cover around 50 miles perimeter in this county.The radio used to build it was an old Motorola MICOR of 100W PA which we keep at half of its power for long lasting and cooler temperature.The antennas are mounted in a commercial tower with an "Eiffel" design as you can see at the following drawing and pictures.
The TX output freq is 444.325 and the PL tone to open the receiver is 179 Hz,if you happen to be traveling by south east FL and pass by here,feel free to use it.This isone of thetwo bilingual (english and spanish) repeaters in Palm Beach county. The other is 146.940 on VHF under the licence of W4ESA. Visit my own webpage clicking in the link provided at the begining of this biography and have all the manuals you need. I thank God everyday for the blessing of being a Ham operator and for giving me the best time of my life making good friends from all over the world. I'm fascinated with this hobby and the decent people who I contact everyday.
Other interest include digital photography with my 14 megapixels/26X Kodak Z-981 God Bless America and all the world hams. Thanks for stopping by and don't forget that the radio amateur operator is:
See you on the bands. And always remember that :
Last modified: 2012-05-24 20:05:12, 35456 bytes cached
My Friends
Does this page contain inappropriate content? If so, Report this page... |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Enjoy it.:
,so they both figured out that was me,that evening when he arrived home
where I worked as well as comunications technician for the City of West Palm beach,FL maintaning
and my main goal in this hobby is 
either on SSB or CW as well as 
that got my attention few years ago when I listened 
and good DX's 
