[Elecraft] CW Contest and Elecraft K3s decoder

[Bob McGraw K4TAX]

I've had good to moderate success using the CW decoder.   I find several 
things to being the key to good results.    First, usually the ATTN is 
required on lower frequency bands, 160M - 40M, along with correct 
adjustment of the RF Gain.   Here you want to see that only CW elements 
flash the bar on the CWT indicator.  Most hams seem to believe more gain 
makes for hearing weaker signals. While somewhat true, there's other 
factors involved.    Secondly, the sensitivity of the CW decoder needs 
to be correct for band conditions.   I find it does required different 
values for different band conditions, usually impacted by noise.    I 
usually have mine at 3 or 4, never at AUTO.  Finally,  poorly timed CW 
elements will not decode correctly.   I do find that near keyboard 
quality or keyboard sent CW decodes quite nicely.    Of course a static 
burst, thus triggering the decoder will produce *** or random 
characters.    Here AGC PLS value and the value of AGC SLP setting  has 
a marked effect on results.  In general I find the internal decoder to 
work equal to or better than many CW software applications I've tried.   
None are perfect in my findings.

73

Bob, K4TAX



On 11/27/2017 5:46 AM, John Stengrevics wrote:
> I too have never been able to get the CW decoder to work well.  It only works if signals are super strong - precisely when I don’t need it.
>
> Anybody have any suggestions?
>
> John
> WA1EAZ
>
>> On Nov 26, 2017, at 9:28 PM, K9MA <k9ma at sdellington.us> wrote:
>>
>> Perhaps my K3 has a problem, but I've never been able to get the CW decoder to work very well.  (Nor the digital modes.)  Fortunately, I've been copying CW the old-fashioned way for some 50 years, and the K3 otherwise works just fine.
>>
>> 73,
>> Scott K9MA
>>
>>
>> On 11/26/2017 19:32, Bill Frantz wrote:
>>> In previous years, I used the K3's decoder and it worked very well. But, for this contest, I bit the bullet and said, "I'm going to decode the calls myself to improve my CW." I had a lot of fun doing so, although I had to skip several stations that were sending above 30 WPM.
>>>
>>> A small suggestion to those who know CW. If you are calling CQ and getting no answers, like late in the contest, consider slowing down so the CW impaired, like me, have a chance of making the contact. It may improve your score.
>>>
>>> 73 Bill AE6JV
>>>
>>> On 11/26/17 at 4:09 PM, hk3j.dx at gmail.com (German Duran) wrote:
>>>
>>>> Wonderful. I was doing the CQ WW CW contest and a lot of the contest I
>>>> worked with a software to help decode the stations. In the last hours of
>>>> the contest I decided to configure the decoder of my Elecraft K3s and
>>>> started to decode the stations better than with any of the software that is
>>>> in the market for this job. Congratulations to Elecraft for this marvel.
>>>> Germán HK3J
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Bill Frantz        | When it comes to the world     | Periwinkle
>>> (408)356-8506      | around us, is there any choice | 16345 Englewood Ave
>>> www.pwpconsult.com | but to explore? - Lisa Randall | Los Gatos, CA 95032
>>>
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>>
>> -- 
>> Scott  K9MA
>>
>> k9ma at sdellington.us
>>
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