[Elecraft] K3 FIRMWARE UPDATE: MCU 1.87, DSP 1.69 (Finally!)

[Bob Cunnings]

Does the advice for setting up soundcard digital modes given here:

http://www.mail-archive.com/elecraft@mailman.qth.net/msg53656.html

become effective when using this new version? Specifically:

"If you try and trick the system and run with *zero* ALC bars in
PSK31, the ALC has to work hard to give you your requested power - or
maybe it will think there is insufficient signal to work with - and
your Tx S/N may suffer. So, *please* set it to 4 bars in soundcard
"digital" modes."

This sounds right given the description of the ALC changes.

Bob NW8L

>   * SSB TX POWER CONTROL improved. Set ALC for about 5 bars (rarely 6+)
> using MIC gain
>     control, then set CMP and POWER as desired. The RF power bargraph shows
> approx.
>     peak power when you whistle or shout, but will typically show well below
> peak power
>     during normal speech. If you're using an external peak-reading wattmeter
> or power
>     amplifier, adjust POWER as required while observing the effect of speech
> peaks.
>     If you find that an SSB power setting higher or lower than for CW is
> often required,
>     you may wish to compensate for this using the CONFIG:TXG VCE menu entry.
>
>     Technical Note: Our latest MCU and DSP code uses minimal amounts of ALC,
> consistent
>     with analysis done by Leif Asbrink, SM5BSZ. (His findings and
> recommendations can be
>     found on his web site, www.nitehawk.com/sm5bsz.) The general idea is to
> keep
>     transmit drive just below where ALC can cause splatter on speech peaks,
> rather than
>     apply ALC heavily to achieve additional compression.
>