K3 Transverter Topics
From Zerobeat
Tom Childers, N5GE
Fri Jun 13 11:45:51 EDT 2008
I've had the K3 for about a month now. Last night I finished building the XV432 XVTR and got it daisy chained with the XV144 that I've had for about a year (previously used with an Orion II, which in my opinion, not perform well with the XV144).
For those of you who are wondering how the K3 works with XVTRs, here is my report on my experience with the setup here.
I've been using the VX144 with the K3 since the day it showed up here:
The connection of the XV144 to the K3 was not difficult. It would have been even more of a pleasure if Elecraft would include a 15 pin connector with the radio so you wouldn't have to go to Radio Shack or the local parts house to get one. After making the control cable the rest is plug n' play and is described well in the XVTR manuals and the K3 manual.
Connecting another Elecraft VXTR requires the control cable for the second XVTR (and up to three(?) more) be daisy chained to the control connector of an existing Elecraft XVTR and installing two BNC T adapters to the previous XVTR's RF in and out jacks so the RF can be passed on to the XVRTR that is in use. The Elecraft XVRTRs are energized by the K3 or K2 rig when their bands are selected. The unselected XVTRs are disabled and disconnected from the RF path when not selected.
How do the XVTRs perform? Great! I am hearing signals with the K3 and the XVTRs better than I have previously heard them on my KWD TS-711A and Yaesu FT-736R and I have all of the RX options of the K3 available to me when the going gets rough.
In closing, I must say that I am very happy with the combination I have here and I like being able to switch bands on VHF and UHF from the same band selector as the HF bands. Now, if I just had a band decoder to switch the antennas for me..... ;O)
Tom, N5GE - SWOT 3537 - Grid EM12jq
http://www.n5ge.com http://www.eQSL.cc/Member.cfm?N5GE
[K3] K3, P3E, Transverters (Satellites)
Lyle Johnson kk7p at wavecable.com Mon Oct 29 08:53:29 EST 2007
Previous message: [Elecraft] [K3] K3, P3E, Transverters (Satellites)
How would you get to 13cms / 23cms with the K3?
For L-band uplink, Down East Microwave has several options available, including some recent products that work directly from a 28 MHz IF. They also offer S-band transverters with a 2m IF.
DB6NT-designed transverters are available from http://www.ssbusa.com or http://www.kuhne-electronic.de/english/transverter.htm.
These are all low-volume producers, so I suspect they would entertain slight modifications of their designs for the proposed frequencies for P3E and Eagle, as well as the possibility of using 6m for an IF to eliminate the need to an intervening 144 MHz transverter.
Maybe wait for future K3 VHF/UHF modules? Perhaps a KM1 weak signals oriented (CW, SSB) DSP based VHF to microwave transceiver? Maybe vaguely similar to Bob W7PUA's DSP-10 2m SDR/DSP transceiver.
One of the problems with gear for 900 MHz and higher is that you really want the RF deck mounted at the antenna, if possible. A weatherproof transverter, if you will. Feedlines affordable to most of us have too much loss. AN alternative is to remote a preamp and power amp, and let the feedline loss attenuate the Tx output of the shack-based exciter to the drive level needed by the power amp at the antenna.
With satellites, you often have a situation where you only want/need a Tx or an Rx converter. L band for satellites in the Amateur Service are restricted to 1268-1270 MHz, uplink (transmit) only. Until now, S-band (2.4 GHz) has been downlink (receive) only. So traditional transverters may not be the most cost effective solution. For VHF/UHF this is not the case, where 2m and 70cm are used for both up- and downlink and feedline losses are manageable (even if the antennas aren't!).
Another consideration is full duplex operation for satellites, which suggests you want different IFs for Tx and Rx. Finally, you probably want VHF IFs for microwave operation for image rejection if nothing else.
Lyle KK7P
GM4PLM/DL4PLM
Well #114 far exceeds my expectations.
My main use is for VHF/UHF as an IF driver for microwaves.
Yesterday it got connected to my Mutek 144 MHz tvtr which drives my dual band 10g/24g tvtrs
I am really impressed with the audio quality, my ham friend who came to have a look had his jaw on the floor and simply said "wow!"
Really superb audio! Even at 100 Hz - no ringing - clean crisp audio with a lovely "feel" to it - not harsh like my pro 2.
Filtering is excellent and monitoring some of the beacons yesterday revealed how useful this baby will be - most people think that you can drive microwave tvtrs with an FT290 and it will work as good as a top line radio - which is nonsense - I need end to end performance and the K3 allows me to dig into weak signals unlike a normal VHF multimode like a 290 never could
Low noise receiver is excellent and with my heil this sounds super - really pleased.
No major issues during built - all smoothly put together - 1 evening and 1 mornings work. (I had a head start having built a number of K2s)
So ... Impressed and waiting for this to develop further ....
Some great features and with the 2nd rx this will really add to my station capabilty
Well done Elecraft - another impressed customer!
- -)
73 Simon DL4PLM
And here is the final #114 finished and working on 10g/24g!
Simon Lewis GM4PLM/DL4PLM http://www.dl4plm.net
