[Elecraft] K3 : SSB modulation

[Don Wilhelm]

Larry,

I would suggest setting the lowest three bands of the TX EQ to lower 
settings to reduce the bass response from the SSB RF.
Those low frequencies take a lot of RF energy, but do not add to 
intelligibility.  In other words, they aid in recognition of the voice,, 
but do not add any "punch".

73,
Don W3FPR

Laurent HAAS - F6FVY wrote:
> Hi
>
> We are the proud owners of 6 K3/100 used at the FY5KE contest station. 
> These radios has been delivered around mid-2008 and their serial numbers 
> are in the 012xx range.
>
> After using mostly these rigs for SSB contesting in FY5KE or in other 
> places, we are still facing a lack of "dynamics", "punch", 
> "penetration", "power", whatever you call it. In other words, when 
> comparing this rig to our radios we previously used (TS-850), with the 
> same microphone (Heil HC-4 element) and the same output RF power, the K3 
> is clearly way behind in term of "average power" we can read on the Bird 
> wattmeter wired on its RF output. Even if observing the wattmeter needle 
> is not a very scientific measurement (we admit it), various comparative 
> reports on the air do confirm our feeling.
>
> We spent time on various available settings (mic gain, compressor level, 
> etc), with no luck, excepted a very distorted and awful audio to roughly 
> reach the same level, which is not acceptable.
>
> After a little Googling, it appears that other contesters suffers the 
> same issue (e.g. www.bavarian-contest-club.de/projects/K3_english.pdf 
> pages 6 and 10).
>
> Some questions :
>
> - Do other contesters (or not) here have noted the same problem ?
> - What settings did you modified (or not) to achieve a good result ?
> - Is there any possible HW or SW upgrade we aren't aware of, that could 
> help us ?
>
> We must confess we are currently preparing our next contest season, and 
> we are seriously considering reselling these radios and bring others 
> Japanese models if we can't solve this problem, despite we really 
> appreciate them in many other aspects (size, weight, etc.).
>
> 73
>
> For the FY5KE/Win-Test team,
>
> Larry - F6FVY
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