[Elecraft] K3 Future Factory Hardware Updates; + New beta f/w release 3.27

[Brett Howard]

I'd felt that the SSB NR was a bit lacking in this latest version but
found that the echo was very difficult to copy through and when
listening to stronger stations however like I said I didn't get a
change to spend a lot of time behind it...

I just made a contact to Tasmania (he barely heard me but it worked).
Anyway I found that using AFX in conjunction with the NR makes the
echo quite pronounced.

Also when I was testing it before I was testing with a somewhat
stronger station and that seemed almost like it was clipping and
muffling the station.  But when employing the feature with weaker
stations it seems to do a bit better job.  I'm not so sure I'd try it
on the really weak ones.  But cranking things down to about 1.6Khz
wide with an FC around 1.05 or soish (depending on the op's voice)
does a good job of cleaning up some noise...  But it sure seems to
work a trick in the really aggressive settings for the weak CW
stations.

Just like any tool it has its places where it does a very good job and
it has its places where you're better off without it.  I'm still very
happy with it as of yet in CW and greatly appreciate all of the hard
work that is going into this feature!  Glad to know I'm not the only
one that never sleeps.. ;)

~Brett

On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 6:00 PM, Brett Howard<brett at livecomputers.com> wrote:
> I've not had a chance to spend a lot of time with the new firmware but
> here are my initial impressions.
>
> The NR seems to be really great in CW (but I liked it a lot in 3.25 as
> well).  It seems to fade into the new settings a bit quicker and not
> need to be turned off and back on again.  Although I find myself being
> impatient and still doing that at times.  I did however go up and try
> it out on some SSB stuff and it seems to really round out and muffle
> some of the SSB stuff.  I found the signals easier to copy with the NR
> off than on.  However the NR in CW is quite impressive at pulling out
> some of the weak ones.  Its not doing such a good job that I'd not be
> able to make copy with out it but for me who is a bit green on copying
> its nice to be able to take many signals and make them sound near
> perfect.
>
> One detriment is that when setting the radio to PB CTRL = 0.1 before
> it seemed like there was a lot more low frequency response and that
> the bottom two bands in the EQ finally did something for a change.  Is
> there something that one can do to get that audio back?
>
> Testing the auto notch in a labratory type environment I inject an S9
> signal and then notch it I get 43dB of attenuation.  Inject a 1uV
> signal and I get 10dB of attenuation.  Both make the signal generator
> sound as if its been turned off.
>
> ~Brett
>
> On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 10:52 AM, Eric Swartz - WA6HHQ,
> Elecraft<eric at elecraft.com> wrote:
>> Hi Roy,
>>
>> As of today, we have made the following enhancements to all K3s leaving
>> the factory:
>>
>> K3 VFO TUNING NOISE REDUCTION  (requires f/w 3.25 or later)
>> K3 AUTOMATIC FRONT END PROTECTION  (1 wire mod)
>> K3 IF OUTPUT BUFFER GAIN MOD (For the P3, LP-PAN etc) (1 resistor value
>> change)
>>
>> Based on feedback form those that have tried the preliminary release of
>> these changes, we are comfortable with adding them as standard K3 features.
>>
>> Please note that the last item, the IF Output Buffer Gain mMod, is
>> slightly different than the similar N8LP mod some have been performing
>> on their K3s independently. We determined that only one value needs to
>> change to implement the gain increase for the IF output. We are changing
>> R8 from 1K ohms to 13K ohms.   (Those that have made the N8LP mod may
>> also leave it as is.)
>>
>> Also, we are releasing new beta f/w today, MCU 3.27/DSP 2.24. This is
>> already available on the web page at:
>>
>> http://www.elecraft.com/K3/k3_software.htm
>>
>> This release includes:
>>
>>    *ADDITIONAL NOISE REDUCTION (NR) IMPROVEMENTS.
>>    *AUTONOTCH depth improved.
>>    *SHIFT=.01 FIXED WITH LOW SIDETONE PITCH (300 Hz).
>>    *VFOs NOW TUNE DOWN TO 490 kHz.
>>
>> We never sleep in Aptos! :-)
>>
>> 73, Eric   WA6HHQ
>>
>> Roy Morris wrote:
>>> I would like to know if is the intention of Elecraft to incorporate the K3 AUTOMATIC FRONT-END PROTECTION mod and the K3VFO TUNING NOISE REDUCTION mod in future PC boards.  If so, I plan to install these mods in my K3s.  Roy Morris  W4WFB
>>>
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>