K3 Receive audio in CW

[TomB W1PKX]

I've had the K3 for 4 months now, but I'm new to the list. So, forgive me if this has been discussed previously here.

Overall, it's been a great rig and I'm encouraged by Elecraft's commitment to firmware upgrades.
However, I see few minor annoyances with the K3 receiver and I wonder if others are also bothered by them:

- First of all, in the prescence of summertime QRN the receive audio is a bit harsh. Static and noise in general seems more bothersome with the K3. Lowering the CW pitch, applying IF shift and reducing the width (the 400 Hz hard filter is installed) all seem to help by lowering the noise spectrum, but don't really mitigate the problem. Applying RCV-EQ doesn't seem to help. It almost seems the noise is aliased.

- With the antenna removed and the input grounded or terminated, the background (audio) noise on all bands seems unusually high.

- Also, with the S-meter configured for "absolute" and no antenna, the S-meter shows a 1 to 2 S-unit background level increase when ATT is enabled. I expect this is simply a software calibration issue.  




Tom
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[N4LQ-2]

Tom
With my antenna input grounded, the S meter reads 0. With the ATT on, the S
meter reads S3 with some random movement. Yes it is strange. I should never
had tried this. Maybe it means the K3 is trying harder? Think I'll go mow
the lawn or something.
Steve Ellington
[hidden email]
----- Original Message -----
From: "THOMAS BAILLIO" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 9:08 AM
Subject: [Elecraft] K3 Receive audio in CW


I've had the K3 for 4 months now, but I'm new to the list. So, forgive me if
this has been discussed previously here.

Overall, it's been a great rig and I'm encouraged by Elecraft's commitment
to firmware upgrades.
However, I see few minor annoyances with the K3 receiver and I wonder if
others are also bothered by them:

- First of all, in the prescence of summertime QRN the receive audio is a
bit harsh. Static and noise in general seems more bothersome with the K3.
Lowering the CW pitch, applying IF shift and reducing the width (the 400 Hz
hard filter is installed) all seem to help by lowering the noise spectrum,
but don't really mitigate the problem. Applying RCV-EQ doesn't seem to help.
It almost seems the noise is aliased.

- With the antenna removed and the input grounded or terminated, the
background (audio) noise on all bands seems unusually high.

- Also, with the S-meter configured for "absolute" and no antenna, the
S-meter shows a 1 to 2 S-unit background level increase when ATT is enabled.
I expect this is simply a software calibration issue.




Tom
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[S Sacco]

Tom -

Have you downloaded the latest firmware?  Perhaps this is an AGC
issue, where the pops and cracks from the QRN are louder than they
"should" be?  The AGC has been recently tweaked...

Just a thought.  Please let us know what you find.

73,
Steve

On 8/8/08, THOMAS BAILLIO <[hidden email]> wrote:

> - First of all, in the prescence of summertime QRN the receive audio is a bit harsh. Static and noise in general seems more bothersome with the K3.
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[Brett Howard]

I've found that playing with the AGC SLP and AGC THRESH settings has really
helped me out in this arena.  I found that especially with the narrower
filters that I was having this issue.  You also want to make sure that you
don't have too much additional gain thrown in for your narrower filters.

My rig is at S0 with no antenna input and the noise is very reasonable.  I
did have similar problems and concerns about my rig and the AGC settings
have helped me in this area.  I set the two main AGC settings into my PF
buttons and have found that they are useful for allowing you to make changes
to better fit band conditions as they change.

One thing I'd like to see is that instead of PF1/2 only taking you to one
menu item it could take me to the menu at the item of my selecting.  That
way instead of having to put AGC SLP one PF1 and AGC THRESH on PF2 I could
just use AGC SLP on PF1 and then THRESH is just one click of the VFO B knob
away.  Then I can setup another area of the menu into the PF2 button.  I
wonder if I can use bank 2 of the M1-M4 buttons as separate quick jumps and
still use the main bank for CW memories...  Guess I'll try that when I get
home.

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of THOMAS BAILLIO
Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 6:09 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [Elecraft] K3 Receive audio in CW

I've had the K3 for 4 months now, but I'm new to the list. So, forgive me if
this has been discussed previously here.

Overall, it's been a great rig and I'm encouraged by Elecraft's commitment
to firmware upgrades.
However, I see few minor annoyances with the K3 receiver and I wonder if
others are also bothered by them:

- First of all, in the prescence of summertime QRN the receive audio is a
bit harsh. Static and noise in general seems more bothersome with the K3.
Lowering the CW pitch, applying IF shift and reducing the width (the 400 Hz
hard filter is installed) all seem to help by lowering the noise spectrum,
but don't really mitigate the problem. Applying RCV-EQ doesn't seem to help.
It almost seems the noise is aliased.

- With the antenna removed and the input grounded or terminated, the
background (audio) noise on all bands seems unusually high.

- Also, with the S-meter configured for "absolute" and no antenna, the
S-meter shows a 1 to 2 S-unit background level increase when ATT is enabled.
I expect this is simply a software calibration issue.  




Tom
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