[Elecraft] K3 in a cw pileup - workaround solution

[Dave Hachadorian]

A couple days ago I complained about the K3's performance in a CW 
pileup, with AGC mushing signals together, and the AF limiter 
restricting overall dynamic range with AGC turned off.

Last night in the CW Sprint I took a different approach and it 
worked wonderfully:

LINE OUT from two K3's went to LINE IN of the logging computer's 
on-board stereo sound "card."

Sound card line and mixer playback levels were set to maximum.

Sensitive headphones were connected to the sound card output 
through a left/right/both switch.

On the K3:
config lin out = phones
AGC off
RF gain/attenuator as low as possible
AF gain turned way down (between first two dots).

This setup really worked great! With K3 audio gain turned down so 
low, the only signal to hit the AF limiter was K6NA on 80, and a 
quick micro-adjustment of the AF gain knob got him under control. 
I was surprised at how quiet the el cheapo sound card was with 
its gain turned all the way up. With the K3 audio gain turned all 
the way down, there was just a trace of occasional digital whine 
from the sound card, way in the background. With K3 af gain back 
between the first two dots, no sound card noises could be heard.

The pileups were much more manageable this way. I operate so1r in 
the Sprint, so when I show up on a new band, I am "fresh meat," 
and the pileups are frequently loud and deep. Stations in the 
pileup could be easily separated by both loudness and pitch. I 
will be using this setup on CW from now on, and will probably 
leave the wires hooked up this way for the other modes as well. I 
already had both K3 line outs connected to the sound card anyway 
for RTTY, and I use a different soundcard for ssb transmitting.

All of this really shouldn't be necessary, but it works, so I'm 
going with it.

Dave Hachadorian, K6LL
Yuma, AZ








































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