[Elecraft] KX3 audio distorted with AGC on, fine with AGC off

[dmb at lightstream.net]

Juhani,

I've encountered this as well. It's particularly noticeable with some of
the wide ESSB sig's which tend to use less compression and no doubt have a
higher peak to average ratio than most other signals on the band.

I've found that reducing the RF gain control to about -10 to -12, helps
quite a bit. For me, the granularity of the AF gain is too coarse.
Sometimes, even a setting of "1" is too much when I'm wearing headphones
(depending upon the particular phones). For that reason, I reduced the RF
gain, and in so doing discovered the side benefit that itsignificantly
reduced or eliminated the distortion you mention.

73,
Dale
WA8SRA


> The firmware version in my KX3 is MCU 02.33, DSP 01.33. The AGC (menu)
> parameters are at their default values. If you turn off AGC (menu AGC MD)
> the audio is fine. If you turn AGC on the audio is very clearly distorted
> on signals stronger than about S7. The stronger the signal the worse the
> distortion.
>
> Using different sets of headphones or PC speakers of good quality makes no
> difference. I have tried tweaking the AGC parameters (AGC*THR especially)
> and I have backed up and restored the configuration with the utility PC
> program. Switching between 14 V and 12 V power supplies seems to make no
> difference. What else can you do? Unfortunately, this issue takes the joy
> out of using the otherwise great radio.
>
> 73, Juhani OH5YU