[Elecraft] New User

[Merv Schweigert]

I am a new K3 user,  have been using FT-1000D radios since 1989
with a brief try of Ten Tec, which I have to say was disappointing
due to lack of software updates and bug fixes etc. 
My K3 is #2306,   first impressions,  it went together like a glove,
I started at 9 Am and by 5Pm dinner call it was assembled and up
and running.   Went through the manual alignment and tesing and
all seems to be working fine.    I started with the basic,  single RX
and transverter outputs so I can use the LP Pan later on. 

A couple questions I am sure there are answers to, or perhaps not..
Audio,  the audio seems to be either distorted or raspy or something,
the CW note is not quite clear and sharp.  Either through speaker
or Heil headphones,  headphones seem to be worse though.  Hard
to put a finger on exactly,  just does not sound quite right.  Is there
some settings I am missing?

Band stacking registers I call it,  I have the mem keys set so that you
have CW , SSB etc and can jump from one to the other,  but as with
most radios that retain the freq you left of course the mem does not.
Is there a way to retain the freq you just left without having to store
it in memory every time? 
For instance listening to a pile up on 14020 vfoA  vfoB slpit 14025
want to listen to DX on ssb 14195 vfoA and vfob 14200.   If you
try and go back and forth you loose vfoB settings and the VFOA
goes back to the mem button setting.  Any way to retain the last
tuned freqs so you can jump to different parts of the band to the last
tuned freq?

AGC,  I never run the RF gain control wide open on a radio, I use
the RF gain more as a volume control,  on most radios it seems that
as you reduce the RF gain you also reduce the AGC action. 
On the K3 it does not work that way,  if I reduce the RF gain the
AGC still brings up the noise floor way above the RF setting, 
I can tell becauseif I turn off AGC the noise floor drops drastically,
and if turning on AGC (with RF gain set way down) the noise floor
jumps up very loud.   Am I missing a setting in the AGC setting that
will help that some?  
Using the AGC on 160 meters just brings the static level up to a
point its too loud, you can copy much better with the AGC off.
But its nice to have a small amount of AGC for very strong signals
even with the RF gain down.

Birdies,  seems I have a birdie on 14027.5 and a weaker one on
14032.6.   Have not scoured the other bands enough to find others
as yet.  I dont hear a signal there on the FT-1000D so its not a in
shack signal from computers etc. 
Seems I heard one on 1.800 as well but its below the noise level
normally. 

Lots of learning yet for me on NR and NB functions and settings, 
so far none of them seem to be effective for what I want them to
do,  but thats probably my problem and need to learn the settings
better. 

The issues I though would be negative to me have turned into nothing,
size,  I was hesititant about small size,  so far not a problem and I
like it very much,   buttons, no problem there,  tap and go or hold
and go works just fine.   Also so far have no problem navagating
menus,  so the things I thought would be downers are far from it.
I sure appreciate the size after hefting around 65 lb FT-1000d for
years,
Anyone have settings that they would like to share that work for
them best on top band (160 meters) please drop me a note off
list.  Or any hints and kinks,  one thing so far I do miss is the
audio peak filter on the 1000D.  Any thing that is close to doing
that on the K3?   
 Thanks for any info.. 73 Merv KH7C  (K9FD)