[Elecraft] Bridging L-R of stereo Line Out for single channel diversity RTTY

[conwell at aracnet.com]

I'm wondering if diversity receive might help with RTTY decoding, to 
reduce deep fades.

I shorted together the left and right channels from the Line Out jack 
on the back of the K3, and fed them to right input of computer sound 
card.  (The left input of sound card is connected to a TS-850, for 
SO2R.)

I was concerned that bridging the two audio channels in this way would 
cause the diversity separation in the headphones to be lost (e.g., when 
operating CW, and having the bridged audio line for RTTY decoding still 
connected).  But the headphones seem to still work as before, with 
separate channels audible, L-R.  I'm guessing there's a buffer amplifier 
that feeds the rear panel line out jack, so that shorting those channels 
doesn't effectively short the other audio L/R outputs (e.g., 
headphones).

Does anyone know for sure?  'Anyone see a downside to this approach?

(I recognize I might be trading one problem for another: instead of QSB 
in one channel, I now might sometimes have the L- and R-channels equal 
in amplitude and out of phase, leading to a nil combined signal for the 
decoder at odd intervals.  But that seems a low probability.)

Tnx,

/Bill, K2PO