[Elecraft] [KX3] Using a Sound Card for Mic (Multiple) Input(s)

[Joel Black]

I am not a professional sound engineer by any stretch of the imagination. I am usually more surprised than anyone else when I get something working. I do, however, have my sound card working for AFSK modes with the KX3. At one point, I thought I wanted a mixer and asked such of this group. I may still go that way but in an effort to keep my station as "minimalist" as possible, I was thinking of a sound card with multiple inputs.

I currently have a Focusrite 2i2 I bought after my E-MU 0204 stopped working in OS X 10.11. It has two inputs and two outputs. Experimenting the other day, I tried using my MH3 mic on the input to the sound card with the sound card output going to the MIC IN on the KX3. It didn’t work. I then realized that the MH3 is a condenser mic and needs to be powered. The 2i2 has a “48 V phantom power” switch, but I am a little nervous of turning that on. I don’t want to let all the “magic smoke” out of my mic.

After all of that, I began remembering an issue I had with a Genesis G59 SDR I built several years ago - the delay in the route from audio in to the sound card, the sound card input being processed by the computer, the computer outputting that data to the transmitter. It was quite reminiscent of my days operating the HEO satellites. The delay is unnerving and I have never been able to compensate for it other than turning off MON. I’m supposing I’ll have the same delay if I incorporate a sound card for multiple inputs.

Would I be better off just adding a mixer?

73,
Joel - W4JBB