K3 and a timewave Dsp 599zx

[Dave Wank]

Hi to all.Just wondered if anyone has used a Dsp 599 zx filter with a K3, and what were the results.Thanks for any info...73  NK8A...Dave    
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[Jim Brown-10]

On 12/5/2013 4:35 AM, Dave Wank wrote:
> Hi to all.Just wondered if anyone has used a Dsp 599 zx filter with a K3, and what were the results.Thanks for any info...73

All I can say is, "Why would you want to?"  Years ago, I hooked one up
to a rig that didn't have any DSP or audio filtering, hoping that it
would provide them. I found it next to useless, it didn't have enough
audio to drive my headphones to the levels that the rig did, and  it
added audio distortion.

The K3 comes with lots of audio filtering that goes FAR, FAR beyond what
the Time Wave box attempts, and the K3 does it quite well.

73, Jim K9YC
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[Jim-5]

Yes, I have hooked up a TimeWave 599ZX to the K3 and am very satisfied with the results.

 

The audio amp in the K3 has significant audio hiss as I am using Bose QC-15 earphones with a good high frequency response.

 

The 599ZX has an excellent, low noise, audio amp.  I set the 599ZX in the band pass mode with the lower cutoff at 300 Hz and the upper cut off at 1500 Hz.  These settings also reduce the atmospheric noise and crashes that are present in any radio.

 

I know the K3 has an audio receive equalizer, and that works for the atmospheric noise, but has NO effect on the hiss from the K3 audio amp.

 

The reduction of high frequency hiss is especially helpful if you are working a contest or long periods of operation with headphones that have a high frequency response like the Bose.

 

The only question you need to answer is does one get the "value" for the rather expensive 559ZX.  I had one friend that has a K3 station, and he worked Sweepstakes CW and will be getting one.  I am keeping mine.

 

The other functions in the 599ZX, as it relates to receiving, are not as good as the features found in the K3.  For example, there is only one NR noise setting and if it does not help with the noise you are experiencing, you are out of options.  The 599ZX has test equipment like features that may be of importance to you.

 

I talked to TimeWave, and the current processor is maxed out on memory, so they are not adding any more noise reduction options.  I mentioned removing the test equipment features, making "room" for more NR options and they stated that they thought of that, but their market uses the test equipment features and they got a lot of calls when they did release a version with less test equipment features.



YMMV, but I am happy with it.



Jim

WA9ZBV

 
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[Doug Joyce]

I also have a DSP599ZX hooked up to my K3 on the main RX audio as well as a DSP59+  on the subRx audio.  Maybe over kill but I had the units available and they ended up here.  The main use was to give me two separate audio amplifiers with level control that I could use for dual channel RTTY receive separate from the line level signal going to the computer.  As one of the other posters noted, the ability to separately tailor the audio bandpass (in other modes) is also useful.

73,  Doug  VE3MV
   

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[chrisrut]

Dave,

Haven't used a Timewave 599zx with a K3, and only for a half hour or
so with my KX3.

However, I did use the 599zx with an older non-DSP radio for over a
year and it made a tremendous difference in CW (don't operate phone
much, so no comment). But my urban QTH is -very- noisy.

After I got the KX3 I tried it - and it made a slight difference,
maybe. But not enough to bother, so I put it in a box and there it has
stayed. Been planning to sell it one of these days, but, you know...

Note that on the KX3, using CW, I have the bandwidth down to 400Hz or
less, as well as using the NB, Notch, and other tricks. The old radio
had a narrow crystal filter, but the ringing was so bad I could barely
stand listening to it. So it was rarely used. In that situation the
Timewave Audio DSP was very effective.

As to Jim K9YC's comment, I won't argue because I've never used it
with a K3. I would just add that when you live in noise hell, "audio
distortion" is so far down the problem list as to not be relevant.

73 Chris NW6V

> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 7
> Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2013 07:35:25 -0500
> From: Dave Wank <[hidden email]>
> To: "[hidden email]" <[hidden email]>
> Subject: [Elecraft] K3 and a timewave Dsp 599zx
> Message-ID: <[hidden email]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Hi to all.Just wondered if anyone has used a Dsp 599 zx filter with a K3, and what were the results.Thanks for any info...73  NK8A...Dave
>

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[Jim Brown-10]

On 12/5/2013 7:43 PM, Chris Rutkowski wrote:
> As to Jim K9YC's comment, I won't argue because I've never used it
> with a K3. I would just add that when you live in noise hell, "audio
> distortion" is so far down the problem list as to not be relevant.

I never found that it did anything useful in the way of noise reduction.

73, Jim K9YC
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[Bill Frantz]

I've found that clean audio is much easier to copy than
distorted audio. It's most noticeable when comparing transmitted
audios, but adding distortion in the receive chain can't help.

Cheers - Bill, AE6JV

On 12/5/13 at 9:28 PM, [hidden email] (Jim Brown) wrote:

>On 12/5/2013 7:43 PM, Chris Rutkowski wrote:
>>As to Jim K9YC's comment, I won't argue because I've never used it
>>with a K3. I would just add that when you live in noise hell, "audio
>>distortion" is so far down the problem list as to not be relevant.
>
>I never found that it did anything useful in the way of noise reduction.
>
>73, Jim K9YC

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[John Bohnovic]

It is useless if you run QSK CW. The time delay is too great.

John/K4WJ
ex KN8PXG K8PXG ZF2HZ
Sent from my iPad

> On Dec 6, 2013, at 12:28 AM, Jim Brown <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
>> On 12/5/2013 7:43 PM, Chris Rutkowski wrote:
>> As to Jim K9YC's comment, I won't argue because I've never used it
>> with a K3. I would just add that when you live in noise hell, "audio
>> distortion" is so far down the problem list as to not be relevant.
>
> I never found that it did anything useful in the way of noise reduction.
>
> 73, Jim K9YC
> ______________________________________________________________
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[Jim-5]

I do not run QSK, especially in a contest like SSCW.  The "noise pops' of the radio between characters is far to much for me, not to mention the pounding the relays take in a long contest.  I prefer VOX in those cases.

A few "double ups" is tolerable compared to the recovery time of my brain from all the "clatter" it just heard for hours.

Jim
WA9ZBV
--------------------------------------------------

Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 and a timewave Dsp 599zx

It is useless if you run QSK CW. The time delay is too great.

John/K4WJ
ex KN8PXG K8PXG ZF2HZ
Sent from my iPad

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[Don Wilhelm-4]

Jim,

What 'pounding of the relays' - that would not be coming from any
Elecraft gear, the T/R switching is all electronic and quite silent.
As for "noise pops", are your settings for T/R delay set too short and
the receiver unmutes too quickly.
Properly adjusted, there should be no pops with QSK.  That is true for
the K3 as well as the K2 and KX3.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 12/6/2013 12:19 PM, Jim wrote:
> I do not run QSK, especially in a contest like SSCW.  The "noise pops' of the radio between characters is far to much for me, not to mention the pounding the relays take in a long contest.  I prefer VOX in those cases.
>
> A few "double ups" is tolerable compared to the recovery time of my brain from all the "clatter" it just heard for hours.
>
> Jim
>

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[Jim Brown-10]

On 12/6/2013 4:11 PM, Don Wilhelm wrote:
> Properly adjusted, there should be no pops with QSK.

That's the way it works for me too.  That said, I don't run QSK in
contests -- I got tired of replacing the relay in the amp. No, I'm not
hot-switching, but I call CQ enough that I would be putting a LOT of
cycles on the relay. :)

73, Jim K9YC
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