[Elecraft] K3 - Purchase Recommendations??

[Brett Howard]

I'll agree here... I've got 2 1.5Khz filters in my radio and spend a lot
of time using them and have no problems using them.  They pass the
voices quite nicely and are very intelligible.  I find that having them
engage at 1.6Khz works best for me.  I find I'm usually using 1.6Khz for
my SSB work even in calm condx.  I just want to hear the guy and not
really into all the additional noise.  I REEEEEAAAALLLY love getting
into QSO's with the ESSB guys when they start saying yea I'm
transmitting at just about 4Khz right now and blah blah blah...  I
usually come back with thats great and all but I'm listening to you
through a 1.5K filter.  ;)

~Brett


On Fri, 2010-03-05 at 14:17 -0800, Ed Muns wrote:
> > The way the filters work, the K3 does not kick in the filter 
> > until you narrow the bandwidth to that filter's size.  So, if 
> > you get the 1.8 all bandwidths between 1.9 and 2.7 or 8 will 
> > run off of the standard 2.7 or
> > 2.8 filter, and the 1.8 sits idle.
> 
> The K3 engages each roofing filter at the DSP bandwidth YOU choose to put
> into the CONFIG menu.  You can have the 1.8 kHz filter engage at 1500 Hz or
> 2200 Hz or 1800 Hz or whatever you choose.
> 
> > What I have observed is the narrower the filter the weirder 
> > and more unnatural it sounds in SSB.  At 1.8 you have 
> > filtered out a substantial part of the normal SSB signal.  
> > What left can be understood but it is not pleasant or 
> > comfortable to the ear.  You may find the filter very helpful 
> > for picking out a weak signal under difficult conditions, but 
> > you would not want to use that for very long, and not for casual talk.
> 
> It is important to understand which part of the audio spectrum to filter out
> to retain maximum intelligibility.  As you reduce from 2800 Hz to 1800 Hz
> bandwidth on SSB, the removed spectrum should come entirely from the high
> side.  This is easily done by reducing HI CUT and leaving LO CUT alone.  Fc
> will track automatically and stay in the center between LO CUT and HI CUT.
> If you use WIDTH, then you will have to lower Fc via SHIFT by half as much
> as you reduced WIDTH in order to retain full intelligibility.  This is far
> more tedious than simply reducing HI CUT.
>  
> > I would suspect the 2.1 filter would be more natural sounding 
> > and you might find that more pleasant to use.
> 
> I've been using exclusively a 1500 Hz SSB bandwidth for over two years now
> on the K3.  It sounds wonderful and is fully intelligible ... for
> communications, contesting, etc.  No, it is not for high-fidelity music.
> 
> Ed - W0YK
> -----------------------------------------------
> Ed Muns
> Muns Vineyard - www.munsvineyard.com 
> FaceBook - www.facebook.com/munsvineyard 
> 
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