[Elecraft] Mic Gain Changing

[list1]

Hi Bob and All,
I got home and did USB NCS duties tonite on MARS so I have a little more
information.

It seems that when I first start transmitting even at a MIC gain of 25, I
only initially get about 30 to 60 Watts of power out.  If the Mic gain is 15
it is more like 35 Watts.

If I keep the Mic gain set at 25 and just start talking while starting the
net the power out keeps increasing for about 30 seconds until it is at about
100 Watts.  The ALC is about 6 bars.  At this point I can turn the Mic gain
down to 2 and still get 100 Watts out and have an ALC of 6 bars.

This is all done when the compression is set to 15 and is never changed.

If is funny but we had to go from the operating frequency at about 3.2 MHz
to about 2.3 MHz tonite.  We did not have propagation at 2.3 MHz so we
immediately went back to 3.2 MHz.  I had to press the tune button to put a
signal out at 5 W to tune the manual tuner as I always do.  The Mic gain was
still set to 25.  However when I started talking I was putting out only
about 35 W, so I just kept talking and the power rose to about 100 W again
in about 30 seconds.  Once again when I dropped the Mic gain down to 2, I
still had 6 bars of ALC and 100 Watts out.

Thats why I said that the ALC thing with the K3 was not critical and seemed
to be self adjusting.  Its just that I don't think my K3 #2080 is operating
correctly.  By the way I still get raving reports.  I am heard with the K3
much better than the TS480.  But I never used the processor with the TS480
so its apples and oranges until I do more tests with the TS480.

Steve, W2MY

-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of Bob Cunnings
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 7:14 PM
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Mic Gain Changing


Are you maintaining a constant ALC indication of 5-7 bars at each gain
setting? Or is the ALC indication falling as you lower the gain
setting?

Bob NW8L