[Elecraft] Level of K3S audio out to digital apps on Mac

[Frank O'Donnell]

Thanks to everyone for the help getting my new K3S dialed-in to work 
with digital apps such as WSJT-X and FLdigi on my Mac, with the K3S 
attached to the Mac by a single USB cable. Overall it's functioning very 
well now, and I've been working some nice DX.

I have one question at the moment. Especially under certain band 
conditions, audio level sent from the K3S to the apps seems low. With my 
prior rig (Icom 7300), my primary way of dialing up and down the audio 
level sent from the rig to the computer was by adjusting the RF Gain 
knob, which if turned far enough (i.e. too far) would virtually always 
put the WSJT-X received signal meter far into the red. With the K3S, I 
gather it's normal to operate with RF Gain turned fully clockwise all of 
the time. The only other adjustment I've found on the K3S is Config > 
Line Out. The default appears to be 10, and even if I take it up to the 
maximum of 100 it doesn't put WSJT-X into the red. (Not that operating 
in the red is desirable -- since clipping will occur -- but in the past 
I've found that if the rest of the band is quiet enough, WSJT-X's 
ability to decode a very faint DX signal may be improved by bring the 
received audio level up just to the edge of the red.) I'm much newer to 
FLdigi, where the signal levels I'm seeing seem chronically low, but 
that may reflect band conditions (and, I'm told by ops more experienced 
with it, that tends to be the way FLdigi always looks compared to WSJT-X).

In the Mac's audio system, there are no level adjustments for the input 
USB Codec, and I don't think there are relevant adjustments in either 
WSJT-X or FLdigi. So my question is, are there any other settings or 
adjustments to experiment with on the K3S that might give me more 
flexibility on audio level sent by USB to the Mac? If not, would using a 
sound card-type device rather than USB be an alternative way to have 
more ability to control the level of received audio sent to the computer?

Thanks and 73,

Frank K6FOD