[Elecraft] K3 #1170 at Field Day

[Brad Johnson]

The K3 was a hit a Field day, particularly among the CW guys. The  
phone guys liked it as well.

A couple of guys here gave me a tip about temporarily changing the  
KPA3 menu to allow for constant fan operation. Temps were over 100  
degrees Saturday afternoon. The rig fared better than most of the ops,  
it seems.

I noticed when I set the K3 back up in the shack that the PWR was set  
to 8W. The last time I checked it was at 100W. It is easy to  
inadvertently change settings on those multi function buttons.

The only issue of note that presented itself was the low audio output  
of both the headphone and speaker jacks. We tried several different  
speakers and I confirmed that the SPKRS menu was at 1 and that the AF  
GAIN was HI.

At home this hasn't been an issue as my shack is pretty quiet and I  
use a pair of Bose amplified computer speakers.

With the high level of ambient noise at the FD site, I found myself  
turning the AF to maximum or near maximum with either the external  
speaker and the BM10 headset I was using. Engaging the DSP attenuated  
the audio so much, it wasn't useable at anything above the F*-1  
settings.

I arrived at a solution by plugging the BM-10 headset into the speaker  
jack on the rear panel. This resulted in sufficient audio drive and I  
was able to use the headset at about 50% gain.

I have seen mention of significant audio attenuation with DSP engaged  
and loss of speaker/headphone output. Is the low audio output perhaps  
a symptom of the same issue?

Brad
AA5CH