[Elecraft] [K3] Front/Rear MIC Input Level

[Don Wilhelm]

Werner, Merv,

In that case I do suspect something is wrong.  Can I assume you are 
running the latest firmware?  There was a change in the ALC and the 
recommended 'number of bars' about 3 months ago which increased the 
normal 'number of bars'.  If you are back-level I recommend you upgrade 
to the latest beta and try it again.

One other consideration is how far away from the mic are you speaking - 
if using the headset, the microphone should be a max of only 2 inches (5 
cm) away from your mouth, and the flat side of the mouthpiece should 
face your mouth.  With a desk mic, it should be placed about the same 
distance from the mouth as well.  Those mics are designed to 
'close-talk' which helps with pickup of room noise too, and the 
microphone output drops off dramatically if you speak off-axis.

I normally operate with the Elecraft MD2, but I went down to the 
workbench and brought up my D-104 that has been modified with an HC-5 
element.  I plugged it in a tried it at the same settings as I used with 
my MD2 (but with bias off) and could not talk it up to any ALC bars at 
all without shouting, but I did see an occasional bar or two on the CMP 
meter..  I switched to FP.H and still had to increase the mic gain up to 
43 before I could see 7 bars on voice peaks with normal speech, like 
"Hello from W3FPR".  My compression was set at 23 for all those tests.

 From that experience, I must conclude that any who say they run with 
the mic range on Low and a mic gain setting of 23 for their HC5 element 
either have more mic gain than my K3 or they are shouting into the mic, 
or have a mic preamp in the AF input - no offense to anyone intended, 
but my K3 just does not behave that way with the HC5 element 
(unamplified). 

I do consider my setting to be in an acceptable range because the HC4/5 
elements are the lowest output mics that I will likely use with my K3.

73,
Don W3FPR

Dr. Werner Furlan wrote:
> hi Merv, 
>
> Merv Schweigert schrieb am 11 Jan 2009 um 11:51:
>
>   
>> I just checked mine #2306,  cannot get ALC above 7 bars either,  Heil
>> proset, mic setting of 8 to 10 is plenty to get full power out.  But even
>> if setting mic to 60 ALC is still 7 bars max.   But I notice that below the
>> ALC bar scale ALC brackets go to 7 bars,  perhaps that means full scale?  I
>> am using the rear panel jack also,  manual states 5 to 7 bars max.  As far
>> as power output less, thats normal check the CONFIG:  TXG VCE menu and set
>> the gain up a small amount,  will bring SSB up to CW power level. Use an
>> external meter as the K3 bar may not respond fast enough to show peaks on
>> SSB. Merv KH7C
>>     
>
> I checked again and it is exactly the same here. I have a LP-100 peak meter 
> and it shows 100 Watt out in SSB with MIC GAIN 20 COMP 20. 
> With normal speech I have only 2-4 bars of ALC, with OOOOLA I get 5-6.
>
> 73! de Werner OE9FWV
>   
>