[K3] transmit equalizer settings

[John Fritze]

Dear Group,

I have checked out N1EU's site regarding tweeking the settings of the K3.  I
am very impressed with the way the received audio is now by injecting a bit
of the pink noise in the background.  Makes listening for long periods very
pleasant.  I love the way my voice sounds on the transmitted audio for rag
chewing, very natural sounding.  I have received several unsolicited coments
about my audio.

What I would like to know is: does anyone have some basic settings to start
with for transmitting during a contest?  I tend to like a little sharper or
tighter sound with more highs and less lows to break through a pile up.  For
example, higher pitched phonetics like "Canada" and "radio" tend to punch
through a lot of QRM better than "Charlie" and "Romeo" even though those are
the excepted international phonetics.  I would tailor those settings for my
voice, just need a starting point.

The second question would be:  Is there a way to save one set of equalizer
settings for rag chewing and a second set for pile up busting or contesting
so I would only need to push one or two buttons (quick change)?  Not sure if
the macros would do this, I haven't played with that yet.

If not, this might be a good software addition for down the road.  I tend to
move up and down and change bands a lot.  Sometimes I come across a pile up
I would like to give a try, so a quick change between 2 or more equalizer
settings might help.  Hey, you never know what the guy on the other end
hears.

John
K2QY
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[Jim Brown-10]

On Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:35:00 -0500, John Fritze wrote:

>What I would like to know is: does anyone have some basic settings to start
>with for transmitting during a contest?

That's VERY dependent on your microphone and, to a lesser extent, on your
voice. The only "constant" is that for virtually ALL mics and voices, you
should set the two lowest frequency bands to their lowest settings (maximum
cut). These frequencies make no contribution to speech intelligibility, so
this setting minimizes the power wasted by low frequency sounds, background
noise, and breath pops. For the same reason, you might also want to cut the
third lowest band a bit. You should make these adjustments BEFORE setting mic
gain and compression (following the procedures in the K3 manual).

For many mics, that's all you need to do. For others, you may want to do
more. You should do that by having another "good listener" tell you what you
sound like with his RX opened up for maximum bandwidth.

The "two lowest band cut" setting is just right for the mic in the Yamaha
CM500 headset. With Heil mics, which tend to be harsh, you may want a bit of
cut in the higher bands. When I used professional dynamic mics with my K3, I
cut bands 3 and 4 and boosted the two higher bands.

73,

Jim Brown K9YC


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[Grant Youngman]

>
> That's VERY dependent on your microphone and, to a lesser extent, on your
> voice. The only "constant" is that for virtually ALL mics and voices, you
> should set the two lowest frequency bands to their lowest settings (maximum
> cut). These frequencies make no contribution to speech intelligibility, so
> this setting minimizes the power wasted by low frequency sounds, background
> noise, and breath pops. For the same reason, you might also want to cut the
> third lowest band a bit.

This keeps popping up -- cut the lows.   There may be plenty of reasons to cut the lower frequency ranges at times, but "no contribution to intelligibility" is not one of them.

There is plenty of research around that demonstrates that infrasonic content between 20-80Hz contributes to a less tiring listening environment, adds to presence and realism (the sense you're not listening or talking to the world through a 1940's telephone set) and contributes to improved intelligibility in certain consonants, especially among male speakers.

If I wanted to sound like a cockatoo I'd just use the <brand deleted for fear of reprisals> radio with a 2.1 Khz mechanical filter crystaled so that the low end cutoff was 300Hz :-)

Grant/NQ5T
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[Bob - W0GI]

If you have an AM filter, it is easy. Just set you rag chew EQ settings on ESSB, and the DX EQ settings on normal. Then you just need to switch back and forth.

I don't have an AM filter, and really don't need one, so I am pursuing the macros.

I have found the commands needed to set TX EQ. It will be a very long string, so now I will need to find out if there is a limit to how long a macro string can be. If there is enough macro memory, it will work.

If successful, I will post a little tutorial on how it's done.  

73, Bob

<<<<<<<<<<<<<
The second question would be:  Is there a way to save one set of equalizer
settings for rag chewing and a second set for pile up busting or contesting
so I would only need to push one or two buttons (quick change)?  Not sure if
the macros would do this, I haven't played with that yet.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[Jim Brown-10]

On Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:05:11 -0600, Grant Youngman wrote:

>There is plenty of research around that demonstrates that infrasonic content
>between 20-80Hz contributes to a less tiring listening environment,

Please cite that research. I'm sure that psychoacoustic professionals would
love to hear of work in direct contraction to nearly a century of published
research to the contrary.

>adds to presence and realism

There is NO content in human speech below 80 Hz. All that spectrum consists
of microphone defects (breath pops, mechanical noise) and room noise.

>(the sense you're not listening or talking to the world
>through a 1940's telephone set) and contributes to improved intelligibility
>in certain consonants, especially among male speakers.

FALSE! As a consultant in the design of sound systems for large and small
public spaces for 25 years, particularly spaces with difficult acoustics,
this is something I've had to learn a lot about. :) The science in this area
is not new, and it's been quite well understood for half a century.

73,

Jim Brown K9YC
Fellow Audio Engineering Society
Member Emeritus Acoustical Society of America




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[Bob - W0GI]

<<<If there is enough macro memory, it will work.>>>

Well there isn't, the limit on a Macro is 120 characters. The problem is, you can't just set an EQ band with a single command. You need to step UP or DN.

For example just to set 50Hz to +12 you would use:

MN009;<Selects TX EQ Menu>SWT53;<Resets EQ bands to zero>SWT11<Selects 50Hz EQ Band>UP;UP;UP;UP;UP;UP;UP;UP;UP;UP;UP;UP<Step Up 12 times>;MN255;<Exits Menu>

As you can see, doing all eight bands would be a lot longer then 120 characters.

I did send a long string with the K3 Utility test window, so that is an option. Put the string in a file then copy and paste into K3 util.

I will probably just define buttons on HRD to do this. Unless it has a limit. :>)

[Bob - W0GI]

On Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:05:11 -0600, Grant Youngman wrote:

<<< There is plenty of research around that demonstrates that infrasonic content
between 20-80Hz contributes to a less tiring listening environment, >>>

The big problem I notice with a lot of signals containing a lot of bass, is the stability of some rigs, and tuning skills.

Unless you are zero beat on frequency, the bass sounds horrible. If some operators could learn how to tune, and make sure their offsets were aligned properly it wouldn't be as much of a problem.

I was listening to two stations on 20 today, and for some reason they couldn't seem to zero beat with those $10K radios. Lot's of bass on the audio, so I had to crank the filter down to 2.4kHz to get the audio to sound decent. It was that or continually tune each station. At 2.4 they both sounded fine.

I find myself cranking the filter width to below 2.7 a lot, just to cut out the weird sounding bass as the stations drift. :>)

But enough of that. We don't need an ESSB vs Tin Can debate.

[N7US]

I use DXLab (http://www.dxlabsuite.com/) as my logging program and its
Commander rig control program, which has the capability of "user-defined
controls."  The user-defined controls have the capacity for much longer
macros that those sent to the K3 with the K3 Utility program.

I switch between a Heil Proset Plus using its HC-4 cartridge for DXing and a
Heil PR781 for ragchewing both using the 2.8 kHz filter.  (I have no
interest in ESSB.)

With some (appreciated) K3 macro help from W4TV and from my friend listening
to my audio, I have a Commander sequence that includes the TX EQ settings to
attenuate the low frequencies and increase the high frequencies for the
PR781.  By pressing an F key in Commander, or clicking the mouse, I can
switch between the two mics, each with its own TX EQ settings and selecting
the front-panel (PR781) or rear-panel (Proset Plus) mic jacks.  I have the
rear panel TX EQ reset to 0 for each frequency band for the HC-4.

Each person's voice will be different as will be the desired audio
characteristics.  I'll be happy to send the Commander user-defined sequence
to anyone wanting to play with it.

Jim N7US



-----Original Message-----
W0GI:

Well there isn't [enough macro length to set the K3 TX EQ for all frequency
bands]; the limit on a Macro is 120 characters. The problem is,
you can't just set an EQ band with a single command. You need to step UP or
DN.

As you can see, doing all eight bands would be a lot longer than 120
characters.


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[Dick Dievendorff]

You can set all TX EQ to the center 0 dB position by pressing the CLR button
programmatically.  Then you can adjust from there.

I just put a new macro example into the K3 Utility Help (in a version to be
released before long):

CUT LO macro:

MN009;SWT53;
SWT11;DN;DN;DN;DN;DN;DN;DN;DN;
SWT12;DN;DN;DN;DN;DN;DN;DN;
SWT13;DN;DN;DN;DN;
MN255;

SWT53; taps the "CLR switch to set all audio bands to the 0 dB position.

SWT11 and 8 taps brings the 50 Hz band down 8 dB.
SWT12 and 7 taps brings the 100 Hz band down by 7 dB.
SWT13 and 4 taps brings the 200 Hz band down by 4 dB.

The switches labeled 1-8 are SWT11, SWT12, SWT13, SWT24, SWT27, SWT29,
SWT33, and SWT34.

Dick, K6KR




-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Bob - W0GI
Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 4:50 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] [K3] transmit equalizer settings


<<<If there is enough macro memory, it will work.>>>

Well there isn't, the limit on a Macro is 120 characters. The problem is,
you can't just set an EQ band with a single command. You need to step UP or
DN.

For example just to set 50Hz to +12 you would use:

MN009;<Selects TX EQ Menu>SWT53;<Resets EQ bands to zero>SWT11<Selects 50Hz
EQ Band>UP;UP;UP;UP;UP;UP;UP;UP;UP;UP;UP;UP<Step Up 12 times>;MN255;<Exits
Menu>

As you can see, doing all eight bands would be a lot longer then 120
characters.

I did send a long string with the K3 Utility test window, so that is an
option. Put the string in a file then copy and paste into K3 util.

I will probably just define buttons on HRD to do this. Unless it has a
limit. :>)
--
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[Bob - W0GI]

Smaller Macros like that are fine as long as they are 120 characters or less. For my settings the strings are longer then 120 characters, so it wont work if I want to use an internal K3 macro.

But I can just save the macros I need as text files, and send them to the K3 with HyperTerminal. Using one of the virtual ports in LP-Bridge for HyperTerminal makes it no big deal to have it running all the time.

But that does require a PC connection.

It would be nice to have more space for larger macros in the K3 EEPROM, or some additional Flash Memory, but those are the breaks.

73, Bob