K3 AGC and Apparent Noise and Signal Distortion

[Julius Fazekas n2wn]

Bill,

I would respectfully, and wholeheartedly, disagree with the "most competitive" categories remark...

73,
Julius

[N2TK]

Don,
I agree with that. When I am in a SSB contest from KP2M I have the RF gain
at 3 o'clock all the time. For 20-160M I have on the Attenuator. For 15M no
Attenuator. For 10M I have the Preamp on (maybe that will change once 10M is
alive again). Don't much vary the AF control - usually at 9:30 for my Heil
headset. If someone starts crowding me I may have to use the HI CUT control.
AGC SLP - 2 and AGC THR - 8.

73,
N2TK, Tony

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Don Wilhelm
Sent: Thursday, February 04, 2010 10:14 AM
To: Wes Stewart
Cc: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 AGC and Apparent Noise and Signal Distortion

Wes,

I agree that constant "riding the RF Gain" should not be necessary,  But
on any one band, reducing the RF Gain to the point where the atmospheric
noise is not readily apparent does make a lot of sense to me.  Set in
that way, one does not have to listen to a lot of band noise and the AGC
still works (albeit at a reduced level), and there is still S-meter
response for those who want to give reports based on the meter reading.
Once set for any one band, it does not need to be changed - AGC and the
AF Gain will take care of the rest - I would not refer to that as
"riding the RF Gain control".

Now --, if one wants to turn off the AGC altogether, yes, the only
technique that makes sense is to use the RF Gain as the 'volume' control
(in addition to preamp and attenuator controls) - the technique as I
learned it is to disconnect the antenna and turn up the AF Gain to the
point where the internal receiver noise is apparent, but not bothersome
(leave it set there), and use the RF Gain to set the desired output
audio level - in this case, changing the RF Gain is the only way to
control the volume of what is coming out of the headphones (or
speaker).  I cannot imagine anyone operating that way on a normal basis
with a modern receiver with good AGC, but I know some do that based on
habits formed long ago with old receivers using diode detectors - we had
to do it that way because the BFO would overload the AGC and kill the
receiver gain.

73,
Don W3FPR

Wes Stewart wrote:
> IMHO, riding the r-f gain control (really i-f gain in the K3) in a
properly designed receiver should be totally unnecessary.
>
>  
>
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[Paul - WW2PT]

Interesting reading. I'm surprised none of these contesters got the memo about how big guns would never buy a K3 because it didn't have 200W or 1,000 knobs on the front panel. I guess they haven't used the K3 enough to see the inherent flaws...

</snark>  ;-)

Bill W4ZV wrote

If you want to see more detail of all K3s in the contest, I posted how to do that below:

http://www.mail-archive.com/[e-mail]/msg90719.html

[Alan Bloom]

> Bill W4ZV wrote:
> >
> > If you want to see more detail of all K3s in the contest, I posted how to
> > do that below:
> >
> > http://www.mail-archive.com/elecraft@.../msg90719.html
> >

This one was my favorite:

"I'm asking Elecraft if they'll make an option for a Clix generator for
the K3. Would be great to use it to keep my run frequency margins a bit
wider. Seems like several of the other radio brands have this feature
already installed with avid users!"

:=)

Al N1AL


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[AD4C2009]

I wonder what would they say If they know that one of the biggest guns in FL sold his IC-7800 (200W) to buy him TWO fully loaded K3's and another big dxer at same state sold his excellent IC-7700 to also buy one fully loaded K3,and these  radios  have lots of  knobs to play with,now you figure out why they did this.
 
AD4C
 


"For a refined ham it is compulsory to own a k3"

--- On Thu, 2/4/10, Paul - WW2PT <[hidden email]> wrote:


From: Paul - WW2PT <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 AGC and Apparent Noise and Signal Distortion
To: [hidden email]
Date: Thursday, February 4, 2010, 5:59 PM



Interesting reading. I'm surprised none of these contesters got the memo
about how big guns would never buy a K3 because it didn't have 200W or 1,000
knobs on the front panel. I guess they haven't used the K3 enough to see the
inherent flaws...

</snark>  ;-)



Bill W4ZV wrote:
>
> If you want to see more detail of all K3s in the contest, I posted how to
> do that below:
>
> http://www.mail-archive.com/elecraft@.../msg90719.html
>
--
View this message in context: http://n2.nabble.com/K3-AGC-and-Apparent-Noise-and-Signal-Distortion-tp4504951p4515073.html
Sent from the [K3] mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
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[Philippe Trottet]

Hi Paul,
ON4UN, one of the masters of low bands sold out his 2 x Orions almost two years ago, replaced by 2 x K3's !!
It convincing me definitively to move from my Icom limousine to the K3 Indycar !
Thanks to him, great rig and top after sale service. I'm proud today to be a Elecrafter
Bst 73's
Philippe A65BI  (F5LTB)
K3#3616

Elecraft, by Hams, for Hams...what else !

>>> Paul - WW2PT <[hidden email]> 04-02-2010 21:59 >>>

Interesting reading. I'm surprised none of these contesters got the memo
about how big guns would never buy a K3 because it didn't have 200W or 1,000
knobs on the front panel. I guess they haven't used the K3 enough to see the
inherent flaws...

</snark>  ;-)



Bill W4ZV wrote:
>
> If you want to see more detail of all K3s in the contest, I posted how to
> do that below:
>
> http://www.mail-archive.com/elecraft@.../msg90719.html 
>
--
View this message in context: http://n2.nabble.com/K3-AGC-and-Apparent-Noise-and-Signal-Distortion-tp4504951p4515073.html 
Sent from the [K3] mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
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[AD4C2009]

There you go !! World top dxers are all switching to K3's.
 
AD4C
 
 


"For a refined ham it is compulsory to own a k3"

--- On Fri, 2/5/10, Philippe Trottet <[hidden email]> wrote:


From: Philippe Trottet <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 AGC and Apparent Noise and Signal Distortion
To: "Paul - WW2PT" <[hidden email]>, [hidden email], [hidden email]
Date: Friday, February 5, 2010, 4:16 AM


Hi Paul,
ON4UN, one of the masters of low bands sold out his 2 x Orions almost two years ago, replaced by 2 x K3's !!
It convincing me definitively to move from my Icom limousine to the K3 Indycar !
Thanks to him, great rig and top after sale service. I'm proud today to be a Elecrafter
Bst 73's
Philippe A65BI  (F5LTB)
K3#3616

Elecraft, by Hams, for Hams...what else !

>>> Paul - WW2PT <[hidden email]> 04-02-2010 21:59 >>>

Interesting reading. I'm surprised none of these contesters got the memo
about how big guns would never buy a K3 because it didn't have 200W or 1,000
knobs on the front panel. I guess they haven't used the K3 enough to see the
inherent flaws...

</snark>  ;-)



Bill W4ZV wrote:
>
> If you want to see more detail of all K3s in the contest, I posted how to
> do that below:
>
> http://www.mail-archive.com/elecraft@.../msg90719.html 
>
--
View this message in context: http://n2.nabble.com/K3-AGC-and-Apparent-Noise-and-Signal-Distortion-tp4504951p4515073.html 
Sent from the [K3] mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
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