The K3S must be working alright on 475kHz!

Having done the K3S upgrades for 475kHz see here it was time for DX.  I was duly rewarded with my First transatlantic WSPR decodes of the year using the K3S and the PA0RDT whip in the loft:-

Timestamp           Call MHz         SNR Drift Grid          Pwr  km
2016-04-01 23:52 G3XIZ     0.475785 -24 -1 IO92ub 0.5  137
2016-04-02 03:56 DK7FC     0.475682 -26 0 JN49ik 1  827
2016-04-02 04:42 WG2XJM  0.475761 -28 0 EN91wr 5  5732
2016-04-02 05:10 WG2XJM  0.475761 -29 0 EN91wr 5  5732

Not band with the takeoff in that direction!

Worcestershire Beacon

Initial 475kHz use of the K3S

The one big improvement in the K3S, mainly due to the new synthesiser, is the ability to tune it down to 100kHz. The original K3 hardware only went down to 479kHz.  Using the K3S properly at these frequencies requires the installation of a KBPF3A. The original KBPF3 does not go down low enough in frequency, but can be easily modified.

As the filter board was not available we stuck a 40dB amplifier between the low 80m dipole and the RX Ant input, to make up for the loss in the normal K3S 1.5MHz highpass filter. The results on WSPR using the K3S internal soundcard were impressive:-

Date                    Call         SNR   Drift Grid             dbm   km
 2016-03-09 04:56 WH2XND -21      0 DM33xt      +43 1431
 2016-03-09 04:52 WH2XGP -25      0 DN07dg      +40 2499
 2016-03-09 04:50 WG2XIQ       +10      0 EM12mp     +37 60
 2016-03-09 04:48 WG2XXM +0      0 EM15lj      +37 258
 2016-03-09 04:44 WD2XSH/15 -23      1 EM34rt      +33 422