K3: 4.51 vs WPX CW

[Ralph Parker]

Setting up the K3's new 4.51 AGC, I took an average of the THR and SLP
settings some of the guys were using. I had to do a few minor adjustments
to prevent the strong signals from hurting my ears.

By Saturday night, I realized that I never had a 'click' problem from anyone!
Non solam sed etiam (gotta find some use for my high-school Latin), I
noticed that I had been operating with the NB on most of the afternoon, in
spite of which all sigs sounded good (certainly lot like 'before', when the
clix drove me crazy, and the NB chopped the signals up). I turned off the
NB, and discovered that it had been eliminating some hash from the neighbours!
Holy mackinaw - it works!

So: what a tremendous difference! This is the K3 I expected when I bought it!
Tnx to the Elecraft crew for their efforts!!!!!!!!!!
Anybody who hasn't tried it yet is in for a pleasant surprise.

I'm doing SO-15m, so I have the night off.
CU all in the pileups tomorrow.

Ralph, VE7XF, a very happy customer.

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[Guy, K2AV]

For just getting rid of key clicks, set your NB to t1-7 with IF OFF.   This
was the prior best method for clicks before 4.51, but 4.51 has improved it,
and t2-7 is not needed except for really bad key clicks.  t1-7 appears to
be good for 5 S units of suppression in 4.51.

I got on in WPX tuning up and down for clicky stations to evaluate 4.51.  I
didn't hear any of those who had clicks up and down 2 kHz, just those that
would make life difficult up and down 400 or 500 kHz.

On 15 meters I was listening down frequency of one such station, with his
carrier just out of my 400 Hz passband, his clicks were S5 or S6.  When I
cut in the NB they dropped out of the S meter.  Also I could hear perfectly
clearly NY4A (multiop at N4AF), who I was just barely hearing in spite of
front to side on his beam and unhelpful skip distance 150 miles east of me.
 Kill NB and can't hear him for clicks, turn it back on, read him easily.

With t1-7, t2-7 and t3-7, there is a "rounding or shortening" of the
desired signal in the passband, with the most rounding at t3-7.  The
rounding does not affect copy, but some don't like it at t3-7.  I suspect
that I may never need t3-7 again.  The rounding at t1-7 is very slight.
 The rounding is what you pay not to be bothered by key clicks.

Email with N4AF last night, who I sent 4.50 and 4.51 about 30 microseconds
after I listened to them, said both ops over there were using T1-7 all the
time and just not bothering to turn it off.

The trick is keep the IF OFF, so the traditional IF blanking does not
generate the hash in contest conditions with wall-to-wall strong signals on
the band.

73, Guy.

On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 12:31 AM, Ralph Parker <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Setting up the K3's new 4.51 AGC, I took an average of the THR and SLP
> settings some of the guys were using. I had to do a few minor adjustments
> to prevent the strong signals from hurting my ears.
>
> By Saturday night, I realized that I never had a 'click' problem from
> anyone!
> Non solam sed etiam (gotta find some use for my high-school Latin), I
> noticed that I had been operating with the NB on most of the afternoon, in
> spite of which all sigs sounded good (certainly lot like 'before', when the
> clix drove me crazy, and the NB chopped the signals up). I turned off the
> NB, and discovered that it had been eliminating some hash from the
> neighbours!
> Holy mackinaw - it works!
>
> So: what a tremendous difference! This is the K3 I expected when I bought
> it!
> Tnx to the Elecraft crew for their efforts!!!!!!!!!!
> Anybody who hasn't tried it yet is in for a pleasant surprise.
>
> I'm doing SO-15m, so I have the night off.
> CU all in the pileups tomorrow.
>
> Ralph, VE7XF, a very happy customer.
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>

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