K3 Mic Gain

[GARY-2]

I recently decided to test a very old low output/low impedance hand mic on
my K3 when I soon found some confusing information in the latest K3 manual.
My K3's firmware is current. I have two concerns: first, pg. 20 of the
owner's manual mentions additional mic gain can be enabled by tapping the 3
button in the MAIN:MIC SEL menu but when I tried the radio responded with
"N/A". I researched the firmware notes and found a change to this control
was made back in MCU 4.31 so that this gain 'boost' (to the front panel mic
only) can be enabled/disabled by pressing the 7 button, not the 3 button as
shown in the manual. Also the "boost" indicator has changed from ' to a
"high bar" symbol. I'm unclear on the "DSP mic boost (H or Hi)" reference in
the notes. I hope corrections to the K3 owner's manual pages 20 and 52 are
on Elecraft's to do list.

 

The second concern involves mic impedance. Except for a brief mention of
"Low-Z (~600 ohms)" on pg. 13 and "MIC MONO; hi- or low-Z" on pg 20 I
haven't found any mention of where Elecraft differentiates between high and
low mic impedance nor what may be too high or too low. Do any of you more
experienced K3 users and audio professionals know?

73,
Gary

N6LRV

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[Rick Stealey]

Gary,
Regarding the mic Z, you can use any mic, high or low Z.
I am using a D104 with my K3, and as you know conventional wisdom says they
want extremely high Z.  Use what mic you have and use TX EQ to get it to sound good.

Rick  K2XT
     
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[Jim Brown-10]

On 5/6/2012 9:26 AM, Gary wrote:
> The second concern involves mic impedance. Except for a brief mention of
> "Low-Z (~600 ohms)" on pg. 13 and "MIC MONO; hi- or low-Z" on pg 20 I
> haven't found any mention of where Elecraft differentiates between high and
> low mic impedance nor what may be too high or too low. Do any of you more
> experienced K3 users and audio professionals know?

For all practical purposes, nearly all mics likely to be used with ham
gear are low impedance mics.  As an audio professional, I own a bunch of
low impedance pro mics, some of which have fairly low output.  All work
just fine with every ham rig I've ever plugged them into. All you need
is a properly wired cable adapter.

Although I don't own any high-Z mics and haven't tried any with a K3, I
would expect them to work fine too, simply because the K3 has such great
adaptability in the form of mic gain and TXEQ.

I can't comment on changes to firmware and its documentation.

73, Jim K9YC
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