[Elecraft] New to Elecraft - help with audio settings

[Jim Brown]

  I strongly disagree with Heil's recommended settings.

I will repeat mine for contesting, DXing, and casual operation.

Three lowest bands maximum cut. Fourth band cut 6 dB. 3-6 dB boost of 
top two bands.

Then get signal reports from a trained listener, who has his/her RX set 
for wide IF bandwidth. Depending on your voice and the mic, that 4th 
band may need more cut, and/or those top two bands may need more or less 
boost.

AFTER EQ has been set, turn CMP down to zero and set mic gain per the 
manual. THEN, with the display set to show Compression, increase CMP to 
the point where you see about 10 dB of compression on voice peaks.

Why do I recommend the same settings for contesting, DX, and casual 
operation? Because these settings increase talk power by nearly 13 dB, 
equivalent to your 100W rig driving a 2kW amp, and your 10W radio like a 
200W radio. That difference gets you 13 dB higher above QRM and noise, 
and has the effect of minimizing the effects of QSB. For all those 
reasons, it makes it easier for the other station to copy you, which 
makes for a more pleasant QSO.

Why do I recommend so much bass cut? Because those low frequency sounds 
amount to nearly half the total voice power but make no contribution to 
speech intelligibility. They also include room noise, breath pops, and 
mic handling noise. Getting rid of the lows nearly doubles talk power (3dB).

73, Jim K9YC

On Mon,4/10/2017 6:02 AM, john at kk9a.com wrote:
> Follow the manual for setting gain and compression plus look at Heil's
> suggestions for the equalizer:
> https://heilsound.com/heil-amateur-radio/support/dsp-settings/all-things-elecraft/