[Elecraft] K3 headphone level

[Ed Picha]

Hi folks:

I've read with interest the recent discussions about headphone level on
the K3, and specifically problems with Heil headsets.  I have found that
the level in my ProSet is fine for my purposes using either the AF GAIN
HI or LO in the K3 configuration menu.

Our FD group used a K3 and Heil ProSet this year, and we were really
hoping to configure the K3 to have the speaker and headphones both
active.  When we tried to use the SPKR+PH configuration, we found that
the speaker and headphone levels were mismatched such that when the AF
gain was adjusted to get adequate headphone level, the speaker was
excessively loud, to the point where the loud speaker audio was annoying
to the operator wearing the headphones.

A quick review of the schematic for the K3 leads me to believe that the
headphone level is programmable.  By programmable, I don't mean in the
sense that it can be configured from the existing user configuration
menus, but programmable in the sense that the headphone driver ( U2, an
LM4811MM, see K3 DSP IF: DAC AUDIO, page 3 of 9) can have its gain
controlled by an up/down pulse provided by U17, the EPM240.

What do folks think about a possible future enhancement to make
headphone audio level user-programmable?  It would address issues with
different headphone brands where users can't seem to get enough
headphone audio, and it would allow independent headphone and speaker
levels to address the issue that I described.

73, 

ed N9EP