K3 mic gain and bias settings

[K2QI]

Greetings Elecrafters,

I previously posted a question to the group about mic gain settings in
conjunction with the Elecraft MH2 hand mic.  Prior to the slew of recent
firmware updates, I had to set microphone bias to low, and keep the mic
gain at 4 or 5.  Anything higher, and ALC would start to reduce power.  At
those settings, speaking normally would give me 5-7 bars of ALC as
recommended in the manual.  Several folks have written to me stating that
their K3 also behaved similarly and thus required the same amount of mic
gain as I've written.

Today however, after testing firmware versions 4.17, 4.18, and then
reverting to 4.14 I've noticed that mic gain now needs to be set to 15 in
order to achieve the same results.  I'm curious if anyone else has noticed
this.  There doesn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary in terms of
performance, but was curious as to why the sudden difference what else could
have been affected.

Any thoughts?
--
73 de James K2QI
President UNARC/4U1UN
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[Fabio Mantovani]

Hi James,
    I installed firmware 4.17 then went back to 4.14 yesterday.
What I noticed today is that I had to change the mic gain, but in the
opposite direction of what you did.
I am using a Peltor headset fitted with a HC-4 capsule, and I used mic
gain around 20-22, compression 23, no bias, gain high to get 5-6 ALC
bars (with compressor turned off, as manual states).
Today I had to put mic gain at about 10-11 to have 5-6 bars.
I don't know if something is related to upgrading to 4.17 and then back
to 4.14, and I don't think it's worth resetting the whole rig, but I had
the impression that something more has changed somewhere.

Ciao
Fabio
  IZ4AFW / NZ1W

Il 07/11/2010 00.54, James Sarte ha scritto:

> Greetings Elecrafters,
>
> I previously posted a question to the group about mic gain settings in
> conjunction with the Elecraft MH2 hand mic.  Prior to the slew of recent
> firmware updates, I had to set microphone bias to low, and keep the mic
> gain at 4 or 5.  Anything higher, and ALC would start to reduce power.  At
> those settings, speaking normally would give me 5-7 bars of ALC as
> recommended in the manual.  Several folks have written to me stating that
> their K3 also behaved similarly and thus required the same amount of mic
> gain as I've written.
>
> Today however, after testing firmware versions 4.17, 4.18, and then
> reverting to 4.14 I've noticed that mic gain now needs to be set to 15 in
> order to achieve the same results.  I'm curious if anyone else has noticed
> this.  There doesn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary in terms of
> performance, but was curious as to why the sudden difference what else could
> have been affected.
>
> Any thoughts?

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[K2QI]

Hello Philippe,

Thanks for the reply.  It seems something has changed in the way the K3
handles mic bias and gain with the latest firmware releases.

I'm also wondering if there is a difference with the way mic gain is handled
between modes; i.e. SSB and FM.  I noticed that with FM, I have to crank in
a little more mic gain over SSB to get the same amount of ALC action. For
example, with 4.14, a mic gain setting of 15 is perfect for SSB while
approximately 20 is needed for FM operation.

As for the 4U1UN beacon, I'm still working on that issue with UN facilities
management.  Because of the renovations to the Secretariat, none of our
antennas are currently up and the club has no base of operations.  Hopefully
we'll be back up and running within the next 4 to 6 months.

73 de James K2QI

On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 1:56 AM, Philippe Trottet <[hidden email]> wrote:

>  Hi James,
> I'm also an MH2 user and use MIC Gain=2 and COMP=20
> I'm presently at the office (working from Sunday to Thursday, muslim
> calendar) but I can share with you my TX EQ settings when back home,
> settings adapted to my medium/high voice.
> I'm always use the minimum gain as possible to avoid any external noise
> added to the modulation, and speaking with normal voice around 5 cm from the
> hand microphone.
>
> I faced the same problem as you with 4.17.
> With 4.18 I have also a slight difference with 4.14 who actually is the
> best ( on the tx side)
> See some comments.
>
> Other question:
> Any idea when 4U1UN beacons will be back on the air, as it is a very
> helpful tool.
>
> Bst 73's
> Philippe A65BI
>
>

--
73 de James K2QI
President UNARC/4U1UN
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[K2QI]

Has anyone else noticed similar?  I still haven't gotten a definitive
answer, and am curious to see if others had experienced the same.

Also, I've noticed that FM always requires a bit more mic gain to achieve
the same level of ALC action as opposed to sideband.  Can anyone confirm?

73 de James K2QI
On Sat, Nov 6, 2010 at 7:54 PM, James Sarte <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Greetings Elecrafters,
>
> I previously posted a question to the group about mic gain settings in
> conjunction with the Elecraft MH2 hand mic.  Prior to the slew of recent
> firmware updates, I had to set microphone bias to low, and keep the mic
> gain at 4 or 5.  Anything higher, and ALC would start to reduce power.  At
> those settings, speaking normally would give me 5-7 bars of ALC as
> recommended in the manual.  Several folks have written to me stating that
> their K3 also behaved similarly and thus required the same amount of mic
> gain as I've written.
>
> Today however, after testing firmware versions 4.17, 4.18, and then
> reverting to 4.14 I've noticed that mic gain now needs to be set to 15 in
> order to achieve the same results.  I'm curious if anyone else has noticed
> this.  There doesn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary in terms of
> performance, but was curious as to why the sudden difference what else could
> have been affected.
>
> Any thoughts?
> --
> 73 de James K2QI
> President UNARC/4U1UN
>
>

--
73 de James K2QI
President UNARC/4U1UN
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