[Elecraft] New K3 Firmware: Improved AGC (great for pile-ups as well as general operation)

[Adi Toplician]

Hello

couple of my observations:

I also noticed that APF action it's somehow softer than it was. Due to my
modest antenna conditions APF was a tremendous help in working some really
weak signals dxpeditions. Now it's action it is not the same, it helps but
not that much like on the older firmware when actually without the APF it
was impossible to copy something.

Now I use AGC:
THR is on 14
SLP is on 10

SLP bellow 10 act somehow like AGC OFF, for every quite strong signal I
have to turn down the AF gain so it was quite uncomfortable until I found
SLP=10 was a good value, at least for the moment, hi.

CWT it seems it's not so sensitive using the same settings like in the old
version.

Autonotch is working fine, Noise reduction, even on F1-1 (on CW) introduce
a small "delay" like muting the signal for 1-2seconds but I guess it was
the same with the older firmware.

The new K3 Utility software has a small minus from my point of view:

working CW with the K3 Utility 1.4.4.25 it was easy to use memories on the
terminal tab because I set the button on transmit and just clicking the
callsign box(memory) until it was copied by Dx station; now on version
1.12.3.28 the button doesn't stay on transmit it goes on stop very fast
requiring an additional click on transmit every time after
callsign/control, etc. Not very practical when working DX in this manner.

Overall the AGC improvement is obvious.

73! Adi
Yo2liw
K3#791

On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 12:31 PM, Thomas Horsten <thomas at horsten.com> wrote:

> Wayne,
>
> It's hard for me to do a before/after side by side comparison since I only
> have one K3 and the band conditions change all the time, but after using
> the 4.51 firmware for a couple of days, it seems to me that APF is maybe
> slightly less effective than it was before. Maybe it's because the overall
> clarity of the weak signals is generally improved, or else the AGC changes
> somehow interact with the APF in a detrimental way?
>
> I'm generally using the 400Hz filter for CW and adjust the passband down to
> about 250Hz for best readability on weak signals, engaging APF at that
> setting previously made most weak signals much louder, now it seems to make
> that much difference only on a smaller subset of signals and only when the
> band is relatively quiet.
>
> It could well be down to random band condition changes before and after the
> upgrade, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.
>
> 73, Thomas M0TRN
>
>