[Elecraft] Curious Power Output on PSK

[Eric Fitzgerald]

Hello All;

I am a new K3/100 owner (sn 3045) and a relatively new ham.  I come  
from an art background so please forgive my ignorance.

I use my K3 mostly for soundcard digital and I've noticed something  
peculiar. Wayne suggests setting the soundcard's outputs (Master &   
Wave) to 50% and use the Mic Gain to drive the output until either 4   
bars of ALC show or the output power level is just below the target   
power output set on the K3.  Since no ALC shows on my set-up anywhere  
near the point the target output is achieved, the latter procedure is  
applicable here.

When I set the power on the K3 to 50 watts, I am looking for an  
output level of 40-45 watts.  When I start out or switch to a new  
band, tune the band on my doublet or G5RV and key down, the Mic Gain  
will be at something like 43 (out of 60) to achieve 40-45 watts.  So  
far so good.  But slowly the output creeps up.  I keep readjusting  
the Mic Gain downwards and it usually settles around 27 to where the  
40-45 watts  power out stays consistent.  If I leave it at 27 and  
switch bands, 27 will produce less than 10 watts! Even if I switch  
back to the same band.  The K3 will eventually level back out at  
27.   Last night I left the radio on all night after using it and   
when I came back to it this morning, the 27 level still worked  
perfectly right away.

This seems odd to me.  Is this to be expected?  I wonder what is  
going on.

73 de Eric, KG6MZS