[Elecraft] How to be really confused by your K3

[Phil Hystad]

I rarely operate SSB -- mostly CW here.  But, I was working at my desk and listening and just happened to be on 14.26 MHz when I heard a CQ.  I scooted over and picked up the Mic (the stock Elecraft MH2) and answered.  He couldn't quite hear me.  I turned on the KPA500 and went again.  He heard me a bit better but said that the audio did not sound right.  We had our QSO anyway.

Then, I heard the W1AW/9 SSB station and decided to pick him up on SSB, I already had a CW contact.  Even though there was a good signal path he was not hearing me clearly even though I know he heard me.  I decided to put the headphones on and focus a bit better.  On my next try he picked me up right away.

Something was wrong with the mic -- maybe gain setting or something so I decided to do the ALC setup on my mic.  As much as I tried, I could hardly get any bars on the ALC.  The Mic (gain) setting was up to 49 and maybe 2 bars at best and talking pretty loud into the MH2.  I am thinking -- what is going on here.

I checked to make sure the BIAS setting was correct for the mic, maybe I changed something.  I switched into the menu setting and noticed that I was on the rear panel mic, not front panel where the MH2 is connected.  My Yamaha headset was on the rear panel.  All this time, while speaking loudly into the MH2, it was the Yamaha mic that was picking me up and thru the entire first QSO that was sitting aside on the desk.  OK, I got things back to normal now but I was getting worried that my K3 or MH2 or something was screwed up.  Good to learn it was only me.

Its a good thing that I am mostly CW -- so much easier than SSB.  How do you SSB guys do it so easily?

73, phil, K7PEH