K3 Beta F/W Release 3.19 for FD Ops... In case you missed the announcement

[Tom Hammond-2]

Folks:

If you're taking your K3 out to Field Day this year, AND especially
if you're going to have unfamiliar (I call 'em 'fiddley-fingered')
ops using the rig on SSB (especially), there is a feature recently
released in BETA firmware release 3.19 which you might be interested in.

Over the past years, one of the MAJOR(!) problems our Field Day SSB
stations have had to contend with was uninitiated SSB ops messing
with the MIC GAIN, COMPRESSION LEVEL, and POWER OUTPUT LEVEL...
trying to achieve an indicated "100W" on the output meter... Of
course, you and I know that virtually all built-in power meters in
just about any rig ('cept the K3) indicate some form of AVERAGE POWER
OUTPUT, especially on SSB.

Given the ballistics of the needles in the power meter and the
vagaries of the human voice, when you're actually putting out 100W of
RF, you're lucky if you see an INDICATED 25W-30W on the
meter!!!  Some newer rigs offer PEAK OUTPUT indications, but not
many.  As a result it's (almost) human nature to want to try to TURN
THE WICK up as far as possible, to get that last milliwatt of RF out
the back of the rig... UNfortunately, we do this not realizing that,
in almost all instances, we have managed to mangle our transmitted
audio so badly that the op on the other end can't make heads or tails
out of the exchange we're trying to convey.  Our Bad!!!

Enter he K3's most recent feature addition:  MIC / CMP / PWR LOCK...!

Now, you (the K3 owner) can preset the MIC GAIN, COMPRESSION, and
OUTPUT POWER LEVEL to levels you know are suitable for  your K3 and
your users, and you can LOCK those three settings so that no amount
of button twiddling by (most) users will be able to crank them out of range.

You can read the docs on the new release and then download firmware
v. 3.19 from Elecraft now.

Just a thought.

73,

Tom Hammond   N0SS

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[Tom Hammond-2]

Just like in "Karate Kid"... Lock ON / Lock OFF... it toggles.

Tom

At 14:41 06/23/2009, you wrote:

>How do you unlock it?  The release notes say to tap 1 in CONFIG:PWR_SET to
>lock, but I don't see a description of how to unlock it there.  I haven't
>tried this...
>
>Dick, K6KR
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: [hidden email]
>[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Tom Hammond
>Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 12:33 PM
>To: [hidden email]
>Subject: [Elecraft] K3 Beta F/W Release 3.19 for FD Ops... In case you
>missed the announcement
>
>Folks:
>
>If you're taking your K3 out to Field Day this year, AND especially
>if you're going to have unfamiliar (I call 'em 'fiddley-fingered')
>ops using the rig on SSB (especially), there is a feature recently
>released in BETA firmware release 3.19 which you might be interested in.
>
>Over the past years, one of the MAJOR(!) problems our Field Day SSB
>stations have had to contend with was uninitiated SSB ops messing
>with the MIC GAIN, COMPRESSION LEVEL, and POWER OUTPUT LEVEL...
>trying to achieve an indicated "100W" on the output meter... Of
>course, you and I know that virtually all built-in power meters in
>just about any rig ('cept the K3) indicate some form of AVERAGE POWER
>OUTPUT, especially on SSB.
>
>Given the ballistics of the needles in the power meter and the
>vagaries of the human voice, when you're actually putting out 100W of
>RF, you're lucky if you see an INDICATED 25W-30W on the
>meter!!!  Some newer rigs offer PEAK OUTPUT indications, but not
>many.  As a result it's (almost) human nature to want to try to TURN
>THE WICK up as far as possible, to get that last milliwatt of RF out
>the back of the rig... UNfortunately, we do this not realizing that,
>in almost all instances, we have managed to mangle our transmitted
>audio so badly that the op on the other end can't make heads or tails
>out of the exchange we're trying to convey.  Our Bad!!!
>
>Enter he K3's most recent feature addition:  MIC / CMP / PWR LOCK...!
>
>Now, you (the K3 owner) can preset the MIC GAIN, COMPRESSION, and
>OUTPUT POWER LEVEL to levels you know are suitable for  your K3 and
>your users, and you can LOCK those three settings so that no amount
>of button twiddling by (most) users will be able to crank them out of range.
>
>You can read the docs on the new release and then download firmware
>v. 3.19 from Elecraft now.
>
>Just a thought.
>
>73,
>
>Tom Hammond   N0SS
>
>______________________________________________________________
>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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[Gary Bartlett VE1RGB]

Say, Tom, nice of you to bring that up.  Gives me the opportunity to segue
into my favourite other relevant K3 feature, added by Wayne at 3.10, to
cater specifically to FD-type situations in the CW tent.  The fix below will
prevent the K3 from keying up at full power if someone innocently boots up
an attached computer while no-one is near the radio, but while some people
are, say, holding on to the partly assembled antenna.  Or your new analyzer
is attached to the transmission line somewhere in line with that RF.

 From change notes:  > >CW VOX OFF BY DEFAULT ON POWER-UP: Some stations
using PC control may inadvertently key the K3 in CW mode on power-up if VOX
CW is  in effect. If this is an issue at your station, locate the CONFIG:CW
WGHT menu entry and tap '4', changing VOX NOR to AUTO  OFF. This will make
CW VOX default to OFF when the K3 is turned on. > >

A third thing a person should consider with the K3 at FD is copying the rig
configuration settings to the FD computer in case someone gets really
adventurous with CONFIG in the dead of the night.

Field Day:  in Canada, an annual event characterised by pre-emptive damage
control.

73,
         Gary, VE1RGB


-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Tom Hammond
Sent: June 23, 2009 4:33 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [Elecraft] K3 Beta F/W Release 3.19 for FD Ops... In case you
missed the announcement

Folks:

If you're taking your K3 out to Field Day this year, AND especially
if you're going to have unfamiliar (I call 'em 'fiddley-fingered')
ops using the rig on SSB (especially), there is a feature recently
released in BETA firmware release 3.19 which you might be interested in.


______________________________________________________________
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Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[hidden email]

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