[Elecraft] K3 : SSB modulation

[Joseph Trombino, Jr]

Take a look at MAIN menu option MIC SEL....believe you need to select HI mic gain range by tapping "1" to toggle between LO and HI mic gain.

When I used a Heil HC4 element on my K3 I needed to use the HI mic gain setting to get good audio out with good RF output.....give it a try.

The Heil HC4 element (dynamic not electret) at the HI mic gain setting worked FB in my K3.

					73, Joe W2KJ
					I QRP, therefor I am


> 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