[Elecraft] SSB transmit audio - Where's the punch?

[Lu Romero]

All:

I have no issues with lack of "punch" with the K3, and I am
considered an audio "dweeb" by some of my contesting
contemporaries.

On my former TS-850, I had "lotsa punch". My audio chain
consisted of the following:

Heil DX-4 headset
Behringer EuroRack 802 mixer with three band "classic" EQ
Radio Design Labs ST-GCA2 limiter/leveler/AGC
Behringer MDX-2600 Compressor/Gate
Home made precision T-Pad line to mic level interface
microHAM microKEYER

It made nice, crisp "razor sharp" audio that cut through
piles, if a little "dirty" at the edges.  "Thin" sounding
but penetrating.

Now, I have the following audio chain with my K3:

Yamaha CM-500 headset
microHAM microKEYER 2

And I feel I have the same punch, but with a little
difference... I how have some minor bass "presence" at
around 300-400hz that I couldnt get with the DX4, thanks to
the very nice EQ built in to the K3 and the very broad
CM-500 capsule.  And I have none of the "grunge" around the
edges that I had with the 850.  The K3 is much cleaner.

I have the same peak to average ratios, as witnessed by my
scope waveforms, the same "penetration" and the same
"punch", but with a mellower, cleaner, less "thin" sound.  

It has taken me six months of tweaking and the Yamaha
headset to get to to where I am 98% happy with K3 transmit
audio.

I have a very noisy shack environment, so there are some
caveats:

First, the DX4 is a "close talking" microphone.  You have to
almost eat it for it to work right.  The CM-500'ds Electret
capsule has a pronounced proximity effect.  You HAVE to keep
it AT LEAST an inch from your mouth or it sounds mushy and
bassy.  This, combined with its omnidirectional response and
the need to run mic gain relatively high to command good
peak to average ratios from the K3 processor, cause "much"
room noise (not a lot really, but Im picky) to find its way
to the transmitter.  

Second, I could fix this with the AF GATE function, but the
gate has and issue (to me) that it does not have enough
hysteresis, that is, it drops RIGHT NOW, and when it drops,
it drops IMMEDIATELY off the cliff with a straight as a
ruler response.  WHAM! Audio's GONE!

I have worked with the IHY product at the Multi-Multi I work
with (we have standardized on it for all positions now using
TenTec Orions) and I find both my old Behringer and Julius'
Gate to have a logarithmic ramping (the gate ation starts
slow and speeds up over time) plus there is some hysterisis
in the gate's response to instantaneous noise spikes, so
these two are not as "nervous sounding" as the K3 gate is. 
As it is, the K3 gate responds so very quickly that it adds
a "crackle" to the audio because it partially triggers with
small noise spikes (lacks hysteresis and immediately turns
on and off).  The effect is rather annoying and spoils the
gate's effectiveness.  But the processor works so well now
that I will put up with the gate till Lyle can get around to
it.

Other than those niggling comments, Im a happy camper with a
much simpler audio chain.  Simple is better! 

The key to remember is that we are transmitting into a very
noisy medium (the HF bands during a contest).  You need to
do two major things:  Sacrifice wide "dynamic range" in your
transmit waveform for effective communications and
concentrate your available transmit power into the frequency
bands that will do you the most good for inteligibility. 
Bass below 300hz is your enemy!  If you do this while
maintaining the highest possible peak to average ratio with
the lowest distortion figures your transmitter can muster,
you will be heard and, most importantly, you will be
UNDERSTOOD.  And it helps to have proper enounciation skills
(ask any ATC or pilot!)

This is not as simple to do as it sounds.  It takes
discipline with mic technique and voice projection BEFORE
you apply any digital processor "magic".  Garbage in -
Garbage out!

Then there's VooDoo... I always put a 3x5 card on the
monitor that says "I AM LOUD".  If you think you are, you
are!

Lu Romero
W4LT - #3192 


Message: 10
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2010 20:52:41 -0500
From: "Jim Miller KG0KP" <JimMiller at STL-OnLine.Net>
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] SSB transmit audio - Where's the
punch?
To: <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Message-ID: <D6C7D2F59E51421A9944095DE3F9D62D at HMJM1800>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed;
charset="iso-8859-1";
    reply-type=original

Don't get it too high.  Higher is NOT necessarily better.  I
hear station in 
contests that are very strong and they are almost impossible
to understand 
because they have their compression WAY to high.  Turning it
down would make 
them much better.

I just made 1752 contacts in a special event and got many
unsolicited 
comments on my audio being very good, excellent, etc.  I was
running the HC4 
and the mic gain at 25 and the compression at 25.  My voice
is relatively 
low.

73, de Jim KG0KP

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <w5ov at w5ov.com>
To: "Dick, WN3R" <wn3r at verizon.net>
Cc: <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2010 1:11 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] SSB transmit audio - Where's the
punch?


> Dick,
>
> You use "some compression"? Crank it up!
>
> Dump the external EQ, and use either the HC-4 or HC-5 (no
bias) and crank
> the TX EQ bands up or down until it sounds nasty enough.
You'll generally
> reduce the lows and increase the highs.
>
> Crank up the compression and it'll sound as bad as the
Yaesu does.
>
> Your fellow contester's claim reveals his lack of
knowledge about the K3
> as it can be adjusted to sound any way you want, with
nearly any
> microphone.
>
> Generally speaking, if it doesn't sound right, crank it
up.
>
> 73,
>
> Bob W5OV
>
> P.S. I know that audio purists will not like the above
advice. But, you
> are looking to bust pileups, not get an audio quality
award.
>
>
>> I need some advice in how to get the same punch my fellow
contester gets
>> on
>> his FT-1000MP.  He claims the K-3 audio will never be as
good as Yaesu,
>> Kenwood, or ICOM.
>>
>>
>>
>> Yesterday we spent several hours between ourselves and
several European
>> stations tuning and testing.  I never got a bad audio
report, BUT I never
>> got a report I had the same PUNCH!!!  He reduced power
and still
>> overtalked
>> me.
>>
>>
>>
>> I have tried HC-4, HC-5, and HC-6 using W2IHY eight band
EQ with the
>> EQPlus
>> with some compression from the K-3.
>>
>>
>>
>> I need some ideas before the next contest.
>>
>>
>>
>> 73, Dick, WN3R
>>
>>
>>