[Elecraft] Re k3 receive audio

[Gary Gregory]

Tony,

Why would we want manufacturers to give us a "fully auto-magical, panacea
radio" that simply becomes a proverbial "Black Box" that we simply turn on
and speak or operate in other modes?

Elecraft are leading the way I feel in giving us some serious weaponry to
fight widely varying conditions. The sun spot cycle is changing, so are
signals we are receiving. I personally enjoy being able to dig that low down
in the noise signal I hear with the K3. Something I am unable to do with the
other radios I have had and used with the same antenna systems I have now.

History shows us that manufacturers have tried the "fully automatic"
approach and have now shied away from that by offering more knobs and
buttons, FW selections and "tweekability" in their current products than
ever before. Maybe, just maybe, a fully automatic design radio will only
give us limited ability to override the receiver and create just another set
of radios that perform worse than the current crop on the market.

I want the choices I have now and I am happy with the K3 development to
date.

YMMV

Gary

On 14 April 2011 08:50, Tony Estep <esteptony at gmail.com> wrote:

> Guy's analysis seems to identify the key point. You can definitely get
> better reception under noisy conditions by going into "SX-101 mode,"
> turning
> the AF gain all the way up and riding the RF gain with your left hand. This
> reduces the AGC effect, possibly defeating it altogether, depending on
> where
> the RF gain is set.
>
> As Don points out, the first step is to go to the Config menu, and set
> slope
> and threshold (0 for slope and 15 for threshold minimizes the noise
> enhancement of AGC). When that isn't enough, you can leave AGC on and tune
> as described above, or turn AGC off altogether; this gives good results,
> but
> requires even more constant cranking of the RF gain.
>
> I have noise not only on 80 and 160, but often on all bands. Sometimes when
> using this technique I can find a setting for RF gain that is right below
> some sort of threshold where the noise suddenly jumps into my ears.
> Re-shaping the AGC in this way almost always improves the K3's signal/noise
> audio as I perceive it when digging for weak signals.
>
> Perhaps some manufacturer, or maybe all manufacturers, will soon figure out
> a way to handle this automatically.
>
> Tony KT0NY
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