[Elecraft] K3 on SSB

[Al Lorona]

Jack beat me to the comment I was going to make. Far be it from me to contradict a seasoned contester like W3LPL, nor to dismiss the comments of many others, but I wonder how many "the K3 sounds bad on SSB" comments occur because of operator error in setting the AGC and gain controls improperly? In my experience, a number of such declarations are due to not knowing how to set the controls to optimum. Then, at some point, these perceptions attain legend status.

Now, if W3LPL's assertion is that the need to know *how* to set those controls properly poses a problem for contesters, that could be a valid point. If, for instance, the newest Flex 1,000,000 just works out of the box, with the default settings, that may appeal to contesters and I understand that. 

However, it's never bothered me that the default AGC parameters of a K3 aren't optimum for me... that's why the controls are variable, no? I've learned to set them to obtain incredible SSB readability. My settings aren't magical; I got them from others and are based on my own measurements (which others have dismissed over the years, I don't know why). 

Al  W6LX
 

>>> With the default settings things can get quite jumbled and the audio is not clean and crisp.