[Elecraft] K3: Make Monitor level track AF level?

[Steve Ellington]

Randy:
I have just the opposite problem. With my 32 ohm headphones I have to crank 
up the sidetone to 40 but down to 15 with the 8 ohm speaker. It wouldn't be 
so bad if I didn't have to listen to the tone while adjusting. There's 2 
problems with this method. If I want to change sidetone level while in QSO, 
I miss words the other station is sending or have to pause my sending while 
adjusting the level. Why must that tone be present? I know of no other rig 
that does this. If I remove my headphones and start to call CQ, I blast the 
entire house with my sidetone. I quickly remember that I forgot to turn it 
down before removing my cans. So I push the sidetone button and blast 
everyone again until I can get it cranked down. This is a very strange 
system. If I wanted to hear the tone, I could just press the "Pitch" button!
Having the sidetone track with the AF gain is nice as long as it's also 
independently adjustable but for some reason there are some ops who are 
strongly opposed to this....Something to do with riding the AF gain for weak 
signals etc.... Anyway. I would just like to be able to disable the tone 
when adjusting the level.

Steve
N4LQ
N4LQ at carolina.rr.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Randy Farmer" <w8fn at tx.rr.com>
To: <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, September 18, 2009 2:35 PM
Subject: [Elecraft] K3: Make Monitor level track AF level?


> I'm finally coming to terms with K3 3260, born July '09. It's at last
> fully integrated into the station, and the diversity receive
> capability just blows what's left of my mind. This thing is like a
> race car: it rolls off the trailer pretty damn fast, but once you
> start fine-tuning it it just gets better and better. To further
> belabor the race car analogy, my trusty old FT-1000D is like a NASCAR
> stocker, big and heavy but a bulletproof performer. The K3 is like an
> Indycar or a Formula I car, maybe somewhat more delicate and fussy,
> but able to perform at a considerably higher level once it's set up
> and the driver learns to get the most from it.
>
> Now that I (mostly) know how to operate the K3, I suppose I'm
> qualified to start picking nits about how certain things work. The
> thing that bothers me the most is the Monitor function, especially
> for CW. For any serious DX or contest work I always use headphones,
> but I sometimes like to just grab the paddle and work somebody using
> the station speaker. I normally keep the Monitor level set at about
> 20-25, since that's what I find most comfortable when I'm using
> headphones. When I'm using the speaker, I can hardly hear the
> sidetone or the spot tone. If I go ahead and crank up the Monitor
> level to where I can hear it in the speakers, the next time I use
> headphones I'll forget to readjust the level and the sidetone will
> practically rip my head off. Unfortunately, the Monitor level is
> independent from the AF level so just turning down the volume, which
> I always do when using phones, doesn't keep me from getting blasted.
>
> What I would like to see would be a firmware change that allows the
> Monitor level to be adjusted to a percentage of the main receive
> level, or perhaps set to a specific offset value in dB, such that the
> relative levels between the main audio and the monitor signal always
> track as the AF control is varied. I take the audio from the K3 rear
> panel SPKRS jack to route into my station audio switching for either
> the headphones or the speaker, so I would rather see it done this way
> than by making a Monitor level change when the hardware detects that
> the phones have been plugged in.
>
> I've looked through the reflector archives and can't seem to find any
> posts that address my concern. That doesn't mean there aren't any; I
> just didn't see them. Does this suggestion "sound" like a useful
> firmware tweak to anyone else here?
>
> 73...
> Randy, W8FN
>
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