[Elecraft] Proper Use of the Preamp

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

The AGC (if working correctly) and the dynamic range of that receiver is
excellent. The great dynamic range is why you can get away with stuffing all
those extra microvolts into the front end with the preamp ON without causing
other problems. 

The AGC is typical of most rigs I've seen in recent years. It has good delay
characteristics, but it is not a "hang" type AGC that picks an average level
and stays there for a certain amount of time after the signal stops before a
timer suddenly returns to volume to full level. I guess a lot of ops didn't
like hang agc because if you were listening to a real strong signal with the
audio up high, when the hang time expired it sounded like someone kicked on
the biggest, baddest noise source in town! 

It was well in to the production of the K2 that it was discovered that minor
in-tolerance variations in parts can, in some rigs, add up to an
over-aggressive AGC action. 

Another major feature of the Elecraft rigs is that when something like that
is discovered, they figure out a fix that can be retro-fitted to all K2's
instead of saying "Too bad, so sad. Sell it to someone and buy our new,
improved (and more expensive) model next year..." 

Ron AC7AC 

-----Original Message-----

Everyone,

Thanks for the suggestions about my lack of sufficient audio with my K2,
something I never really noticed until last night.  One thing that rang a
bell after reading everyone's input was that last night I also played around
with the AGC controls and did not notice anything different with any
setting.  I have not experienced any pumping or increase in volume by say
turning the AGC off.  The rig has worked so well so far that perhaps I have
not ever noticed that maybe the AGC hasn't ever worked.  So I will check the
AGC.  I would think that the Elecraft team would have designed a "kick ass"
kind of AGC, like many of the other quality designed parts of the radio.

By the way my favorite head phones are my older Heil phones with mike which
I have been using with the K2.

To think that this radio easily beats my TS850, and that maybe I can fix
something to make the K2 even better!

Thanks again,
Steve, W2MY/5