[Elecraft] K3's RF Clipping Speech Processing

[David Gilbert]

During the NAQP SSB contest in January, I heard a single-op somewhere in 
the midwest calling CQ with a steady S9 +20db signal that was so 
overcompressed that he was literally not understandable.  Nobody was 
answering him, but lots of guys were commenting on his bad signal behind 
his back.  So I gave him a call and told him all of that, and suggested 
he crank back the supercharger.  He backed off the compression three 
different times before he sounded crisp, and by the time he got there 
his signal was S9 +5db but FAR more intelligible.

There were many South American contest stations during the recent ARRL 
DX SSB contest that sounded like voice-modulated spark gap transmissions 
... horrible stuff.  It often took several tries to ferret out their 
callsigns, and what they thought they gained in terms of quick QSO rates 
is beyond me.

The great thing about the K3 is that by speaking into the mic with the 
monitor set loud enough to drown out your own voice (the one inside your 
own head even while wearing headphones), you can set mic gain and 
compression for your own perception of crisp intellgibility instead of 
maximum average power out.  The two are definitely not the same.

73,
Dave   AB7E




Julius Fazekas n2wn wrote:
> Thanks Jack!
>
> Based on your presentation and the voice settings, I'll be dropping my
> compression back a notch. Figure if it's easier for me to understand it will
> be easier for others to understand me (mumble mumble).
>
> 73,
> Julius
> n2wn
>
>
> Jack Smith-6 wrote:
>   
>> I've added a page with some measurements of the K3's RF speech clipping 
>> functionality, including sample sound records, oscilloscope envelope 
>> views and spectrum analyzer captures.
>>
>> http://www.cliftonlaboratories.com/elecraft_k3_speech_processing.htm
>>
>> Jack K8ZOA
>> www.cliftonlaboratories.com
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>
>
> -----
> Julius Fazekas
> N2WN
>
> Tennessee Contest Group
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>
> Tennessee QSO Party
> http://www.tnqp.org/
>
> Elecraft K2/100 #4455
> Elecraft K3/100 #366
>