[Elecraft] Mic Settings

[Bob McGraw - K4TAX]

My experience is exactly as Don suggests.  Proper order in doing this is 
very important.  My experience is the CMP value as displayed should not 
exceed 10 on the meter scale.   I normally run about 2 to 3 bars.    And 
yes listening to ones signal in TEST mode and using headphones does work 
for this evaluation.

If, on the air, one gets comments about distortion or clipping or what 
ever, and if reducing power by 50% or more does clear it up, then I 
would strongly suspect RF getting back into the TX audio. That's a 
different issue to resolve.

73
Bob, K4TAX
K3S s/n 10163

  

On 10/22/2015 6:35 PM, Don Wilhelm wrote:
> John,
>
> Have you set the mic gain properly?  If so, it should not clip.
> You can do it in TX TEST mode so you do not bother your ham neighbors.
>
> First set the Compression to zero (important).
> Then set the MIC GAIN to produce 6 to 7 bars on the ALC meter - that 
> is also important.
> After that, set the compression as you desire.  You *can* do that by 
> listening to the MONitor if you are using a headset.
>
> Do it all in the order specified, and you should have good audio. Just 
> playing around with the gain and compression settings may not produce 
> the results you want.
>
> My guess is that you are running with too much compression (and 
> perhaps too little mic gain), and that could sound like 'clipping' on 
> the far end of the QSO.
>
> 73,
> Don W3FPR