Taming the SSB receive dragon

[Bill Clarke]

I have only had the K3 for a few days and have already experienced a
couple of headaches from listening to hours and hours of SSB in rag
chews and nets on 75 meters.  When compared to my trusty Kenwood TS-480,
the K3's receiver was far too harsh.

I process the receive audio through a Behringer mixer panel and into a
pair of Behringer Ms40 speakers - hence, both radios get the exact same
chance at sounding really good.

I did some research into the problem and read what other ops had done to
correct the problem. Then I applied those gleanings to my K3:

I run the 2.7 filter open (full WIDTH)
I set the SHIFT to 1.3 (mellows things out a little)
The AGC SLP is set to 15 (this slayed the wow-wow dragon)
The AFX Delay at 2 (can change with the mood)
RX EQ: +3  +3  +2   0  +1  +1  +1  -1 (you can play with this forever)

Now I have that wonderful Kenwood receive audio back. Couple that with
the arsenal of the K3's QRM/QRN tools afforded by the DSP and a 2.1
filter - and I can hear through almost anything. I am impressed with the
K3 - it is a keeper - affording fine listening quality.

There are two more receive dislikes I will be working at getting rid of:

1. General background hiss - which is more noticeable on the K3 than the
480 (even using the ATT and reducing the RF Gain). I live in a quiet
rural location - it should be quieter than it is.
2. The NOTCH (auto) - introduces an unpleasant variation to the signal -
specifically, a slight warble.

I am open to suggestions and comments.

Bill W2BLC

--
Sent from my blackboard - written in chalk

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[Don Wilhelm-4]

Bill,

I have 2 suggestions - first for SSB, use Hi/Lo Cut instead of shift and
width - set the Lo Cut at 200 or 250 (300 or 350 if there is QRM on the
low frequency end), and then use the Hi Cut to control the width of the
received passband - the K3 algorithms automatically take care of the
center frequency.  Yes, it can be a real challenge to adjust both the
shift and width to obtain a good sounding signal - you must adjust shift
if you change width in order to maintain intelligible copy.
That is not a K3 limitation, but a limitation of our ears hearing human
speech.  There must be content in the 300 to 400 Hz range to maintain
intelligibility - so you cannot cut the low end very much - OTOH, the
high end may be cut drastically and still maintain intelligibility even
though doing so removes some of the smoothness and naturalness from the
voice.

Secondly (on your background hiss problem), I suggest you read the
"Noisy K3" article on my website www.w3fpr.com and adjust your AGC slope
and threshold parameters in light of that article.  I believe you went
the wrong way with your AGC slope - the AGC settings are a personal
preference, but do it with knowledge of what should happen with the
various settings - my article tries to give you that information.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 2/11/2012 3:58 PM, Bill wrote:

> I have only had the K3 for a few days and have already experienced a
> couple of headaches from listening to hours and hours of SSB in rag
> chews and nets on 75 meters.  When compared to my trusty Kenwood TS-480,
> the K3's receiver was far too harsh.
>
> I process the receive audio through a Behringer mixer panel and into a
> pair of Behringer Ms40 speakers - hence, both radios get the exact same
> chance at sounding really good.
>
> I did some research into the problem and read what other ops had done to
> correct the problem. Then I applied those gleanings to my K3:
>
> I run the 2.7 filter open (full WIDTH)
> I set the SHIFT to 1.3 (mellows things out a little)
> The AGC SLP is set to 15 (this slayed the wow-wow dragon)
> The AFX Delay at 2 (can change with the mood)
> RX EQ: +3  +3  +2   0  +1  +1  +1  -1 (you can play with this forever)
>
> Now I have that wonderful Kenwood receive audio back. Couple that with
> the arsenal of the K3's QRM/QRN tools afforded by the DSP and a 2.1
> filter - and I can hear through almost anything. I am impressed with the
> K3 - it is a keeper - affording fine listening quality.
>
> There are two more receive dislikes I will be working at getting rid of:
>
> 1. General background hiss - which is more noticeable on the K3 than the
> 480 (even using the ATT and reducing the RF Gain). I live in a quiet
> rural location - it should be quieter than it is.
> 2. The NOTCH (auto) - introduces an unpleasant variation to the signal -
> specifically, a slight warble.
>
> I am open to suggestions and comments.
>
> Bill W2BLC
>

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