[Elecraft] K3 Beta firmware rev. 2.57 -- SSB PWR control, SPLIT in diversity mode, etc.

[wayne burdick]

K3 beta-test firmware revision 2.57 (with DSP rev 1.94) is now 
available.

This is a major release. Some recent changes have had only limited 
testing, but we wanted to get it out in time for this weekend's 
contest. If you have any difficulty, you can easily revert back to the 
last production version (2.46). Be sure to use the latest revision of 
K3 Utility to do the downloads.

Please send any problem reports to k3support at elecraft.com. For 
instructions on how to load beta firmware, please see:

   http://www.elecraft.com/K3/k3_software.htm

Highlights:

* SSB power control improved (no jumps in power while rotating the PWR 
control during transmit; no upward spike when crossing the 12-W 
boundary; SSB drive level not affected by tapping A/B, changing modes, 
or doing an ATU TUNE. (NOTE: This doesn't address all issues with voice 
peaks; we have further work to do on ALC. Also, a band change or memory 
recall still reinitializes the SSB drive level. We're working on that.)

* SPLIT operation is now possible in diversity mode (requires sub 
receiver). There are several user-interface changes related to this; 
please review the release notes below carefully. Most noticeably, in 
diversity mode VFO A still controls both receivers but the VFO B 
frequency remains fully independent.

* First tap of A>B copies mode, if required (avoids accidental 
cross-mode SPLIT)

* All known issues with CW/DATA message buffers fixed, including lost 
characters during chaining

* Major improvements to CW-to-PSK31 operation -- faster transmit, and 
no erroneous characters sent when using the keyer paddle

* Many new or improved remote-control commands for developers

Other details appear below.

73,
Wayne
N6KR

* * *

MCU 2.57, 10-24-2008

Major changes and new features:

* SSB POWER CONTROL IMPROVEMENTS: (1) No jumps in power while
rotating PWR control during transmit. (2) No upward spike when crossing
QRP/QRO boundary. (3) No loss of SSB TX drive level when tapping A/B,
changing modes, or doing an ATU TUNE. (4) These improvements may also
lessen the effect of “spiking” external amplifiers, but further work on 
the
ALC routine is planned.

Note: The SSB drive does still get reinitialized to match the CW level 
if you do
a TUNE (this is desirable). This also happens if you change bands or 
recall a
memory (that will be fixed in the next release).

* FIRST A>B TAP COPIES MODE (if VFO A and B modes are different). This
should greatly reduce the chance of having VFO B in the wrong mode when
the operator later goes into SPLIT. (Those who want to do cross-mode 
split
can still set up VFO B differently using BSET mode, and should avoid 
A>B.)
Once the VFO modes are the same, operation of A>B is the same as before:
A single tap copies only the frequency, while a second tap copies 
everything.

* PSK31 (PSK D MODE) TRANSMIT IMPROVEMENTS:  Eliminated
erroneous characters during CW-to-PSK31 transmit when using the keyer
paddle. Also greatly improved PSK31 transmit speed by removing all
extraneous “zeros” from the data stream.

* MARS operation now possible on 40 m up to 7550 kHz.

VFO Linking, Sub RX, Diversity Mode, and SPLIT:

* SPLIT CAN BE USED IN DIVERSITY MODE: During SPLIT, VFO B is only the
transmit frequency. VFO A controls both receivers. So you now have a 
choice when using SPLIT with the sub receiver: diversity receive, or 
listening to both your
RX (main) and TX (sub) frequencies simultaneously. Also see BSET note 
below.

* VFO A-B LINKING: This is now indicated by slowly flashing the VFO B 
kHz
decimal point.

* A/B and REV CAN NOW BE USED IN DIVERSITY MODE. In both cases, the
VFOs are swapped, allowing you to listen in diversity mode on VFO B’s 
frequency.

* BSET IN DIVERSITY MODE: If you use BSET in diversity mode, you’ll now
hear the main RX in the left ear and sub RX in the right. This is 
useful when using SPLIT with diversity, as it allows you to override 
diversity mode temporarily and listen to both your RX and TX 
frequencies.

* VFO B NOT LOCKED WHEN LINKED TO VFO A: This means the VFOs can
be linked but at different frequencies. A fixed offset can be 
established using
VFO B, and will be maintained as you tune VFO A.

* VFOs NOT LINKED IN DIVERSITY MODE: VFO A is used to update both
synthesizers (main and sub), but VFO B is now free to be used as a 
SPLIT TX
frequency (see below). In DIVERSITY mode, the VFO A kHz decimal point 
slowly flashes, as before.

Miscellaneous:

* MESSAGE PLAY FIXES: There were a few issues with CW and DATA message
buffer playback, including occasional truncated characters when 
chaining in CW
mode, and inconsistent behavior when chaining.

* MORE ACCURATE AM-MODE POWER LEVEL. Also slightly higher modulation
percentage.

* INTERNAL 2-TONE TEST GENERATOR now works with 2.7 as well as 2.8
kHz crystal filters, and the tones are now correct when used with both 
LSB and USB.

* KEY OUT disabled sooner on power-up: Previously, KEY OUT was active 
for
about 3 to 4 seconds on power-up. This has been reduced to under one 
second.
In any case, no RF is present during this period.

For Software Developers (see K3 Programmer’s Reference, rev B14):

* “DS” (VFO A DISPLAY READ): This command now correctly handles all of 
the
RX EQ / TX EQ “mini-bar graph” levels as displayed in the main menu. 
The bar
graph level 1 character, if it appears in the “DS” response string, is 
now converted to an underscore rather than a semicolon. This preserves 
the semicolon as strictly a command terminator.

* "DT" COMMAND ADDED (VFO A DATA sub-mode read/set). "MD" is
still used to set norm/rev.

* "IF" COMMAND INCLUDES DATA SUB-MODE ("K31" must be in effect).

* "IC" COMMAND ADDED (ICON and MISC STATUS): Provides state information 
on many functions, including BSET, TX TEST, VFO linking, diversity 
mode, sub RX antenna, full/semi QSK, dual-passband CW, dual-tone FSK 
filtering, ESSB, nose gate, FM PL tone on/off, etc.

* “LK$” COMMAND ADDED (VFO B LOCK).

* “TQ” (TRANSMIT STATUS QUERY) now returns 1 consistently when the K3 
is in
transmit mode.

* MORE MENU ENTRIES ACCESSIBLE WITH “MP” COMMAND: KAT3, VCO MD, and AGC 
THR are now available. See "MN" command table for details.

* "KY" (keying) remote control command now handles CR, LF, TAB and other
ASCII characters including:   [ \ ] ^ _ `    All of these characters 
are useful in PSK D mode. They’re ignored in other modes, except that  
'_' becomes an
"AA" prosign in CW mode.

* Prosign mapping (e.g., “=” conversion to “BT”) is now disabled in PSK 
D
and FSK D modes. This allows all ASCII characters to be transmitted 
normally.
(Prosigns can always be sent using the alphabetic characters themselves
in these modes.)