[Elecraft] Attenuator and RF Gain Settings

[Don Wilhelm]

John,

If you have electric fence impulse noise, an AGC Threshold setting of 
002 is too low IMHO.  Try setting it higher, say at 008 and see what 
happens.  If the noise is still a problem (with AGC ON), then try 
reducing the slope to 004 or even 002 - with the reduced slope, strong 
signals will sound louder than weak ones in your ears, which I consider 
a good thing - ragchewers looking for only 'armchair copy' may differ 
and want to use a higher slope so all signals have about the same audio 
level regardless of signal strength.

73,
Don W3FPR

juergen wrote:
> Hi Lance
>
> This issue is a real problem for me. If I turn the AGC off I need too use the noise blanker. This ruins the K3's strong signal handling performance. Normally I dont need to use the noise blanker. However with the AGC off, electric fence pulses are loud as hell because the pulse stretching blanker is not on with the AGC off.
>
> This problem with the K3's producing noise with AGC on is real problem. On my 40 meter 4 square I basically have a  very low noise floor S1 -S2. With AGC on I am getting QRN  that the K3 AGC makes thats not really at the level that the K3 is reporting.  Yes there is QRN there, but its residual  with occasional pops, not the S5 and S7 QRN crashes that the AGC produces. This is not  a S meter calibration issue either.  Like you my QRN level jumps up mysteriously. With the AGC is off this QRN is not there. I have the threshold set at 2. Even with the ATT on this QRN is being made  much more apparent with the AGC on. I hope Elecraft has a fix for this because the K3 is unusable for me in its current form on the low bands.
>
> In the 160m CW contest, because of the QRN I had too use my TS850 and lowly IC735 which seemed too cope much better  in  mild QRN conditions. The K3's AGC under these conditions was making the band sound like I needed  to disconnect the antenna very soon!
>
>
> John
>   
>