[Elecraft] Mic - VOX interaction

[Wes (N7WS)]

Setup for RTTY using AFSK and VOX was easy with my original K3.  Not so much 
with the K3S.

What I've noted is that with the new internal sound card the Line Level is much 
fussier and the apparent gain requires lowering the Windows slider to about 25% 
vs. 50% on the laptop sound card used with the old K3.  This isn't a surprising 
or insurmountable issue, but does make it more difficult to get a flickering ALC 
bar. Without care I get a hard over 7 bars reading.

But a more puzzling issue is the fact that while doing this experiment, I 
discovered that the VOX gain is dependent on the Line Level/Mic gain.  This has 
made setup even more hair triggered. If I lower the Line Level to get flickering 
bars, I must increase VOX gain and then it's way too sensitive on SSB.

After investigation, I've found this to be true on both radios, although I never 
noted it before on the old K3.  IMHO VOX should operate in parallel with the TX 
audio, not in series.

Perhaps one of the geniuses at Elecraft could fix this in firmware, if not could 
we at least have VOX gain saved by mode?

Wes  N7WS