[Elecraft] [K3] Help with K3, TenTec TITAN amp, and QSK

[Steve Ellington]

Vic
Nope. There's more to weight than just dot space ratio. Not only must the 
length of the dashes change but so must the dits. The K3 weight control 
changes only the length of the dash, not the dits. If you turn up the K3's 
"weight", it just changes the apparent ration and ends up sounding like a 
bug with normal dits and long dashes. This is not the way to send cw. The 
K3's control is the same as ICOMs which is flat wrong. Kenwood had it right 
in their earlier rigs but went the ICOM way recently. TenTec has it right in 
the Omni 7. Almost all external keyers have it right too.
Steve Ellington
N4LQ at carolina.rr.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Vic K2VCO" <vic at rakefet.com>
To: "Steve Ellington" <n4lq at carolina.rr.com>
Cc: "David Windisch" <davidjw at CINCI.RR.COM>; <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 2:03 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] [K3] Help with K3, TenTec TITAN amp, and QSK


> Steve Ellington wrote:
>> Aw come on....Turn the "weight" control up and your dahs get longer. The 
>> dits stay the same. This is RATIO, not weight. A weight control would 
>> make your dits shorter, lighter, less heavy. Just like changing the gap 
>> on a bug.
>
> The scope says otherwise. The K3 has a weight control. Dot:Dash ratio is 
> constant. Dot:Space ratio is weight, and that's what the K3 weight control 
> changes.
>
>> The JA boys changed this back a few years ago and started calling weight 
>> ration. Any Curtis keyer has it right. The Idom Press keyers have it 
>> right as well as the K1EL series. All of this have real weight controls 
>> and some even have weight and ration controls. The ICOMs have ratio 
>> controls and they are useless. The correct ratio is 3:1 and should never 
>> vary.
>
> I don't disagree that the Dot:Dash ratio should never change. I don't have 
> an ICOM radio, so I can't tell you what it does, but I know the K3 changes 
> the weight.
>
> The Idiom press keyers have two adjustments: Weight (W), which changes 
> Dot:Space ratio as it should, and Keying Compensation (K), which lets you 
> add a fixed amount to all keyed elements, to compensate for a fixed 
> shortening in the radio.
>
> -- 
> 73,
> Vic, K2VCO
> Fresno CA
> http://www.qsl.net/k2vco