[Elecraft] K3 - Purchase Recommendations??

[N2TK, Tony]

Hi Ed,
It must be my ears. I installed a 2.1 filter before this contest. I have it
set so it engages at 2.35. I tried different settings over the weekend from
2.7 down to 1.8. I only used the HI cut. I finally settled on 2.15. My run
rate suffered when I went narrower. The narrower I made it below 2.15 the
harder time I had pulling out calls.

And with the NR even at 5-1 the fidelity suffered more so had more trouble
pulling out calls as compared to no NR on the low bands. I usually use 1-2
on CW.

Maybe it is the response of my ears or maybe I am missing something????

73,
N2TK/NP2, Tony


-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Ed Muns
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2010 5:17 PM
To: 'George A. Thornton'
Cc: Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 - Purchase Recommendations??

> 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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