[Elecraft] K3 Power-hunting on FT8

[Walter Underwood]

I recommend finding someone with a P3 or other spectrum display and trying this on *your* K3 rather than looking at pictures of “a K3”. Running with insufficient audio drive, which is what you are doing, has known problems, which you are experiencing.

I would be glad to do it with my KX3 and PX3, but I’m on the other side of the US.

wunder
K6WRU
Walter Underwood
CM87wj
http://observer.wunderwood.org/ (my blog)

> On Jul 20, 2023, at 7:33 PM, Pete Smith N4ZR <pete.n4zr at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> OK guys - rather than reply individually, let me try to pull everything together in one message.
> 
> In a previous effort at FT8 I followed the standard advice to set the power slider in WSJT-X (on the lower RIGHT side) so that my K-3 showed 4 bars on the ALC meter, just below the threshold for ALC starting, and that seemed to work fine.  Then a technically-qualified local ham showed me spectrum analyzer images of a K-3 at 4 bars versus at no bars, and the difference was startling - the no bars signal was clean and narrow, while the 4-bars signal looked like some of those SSB sigs we hear during contests, wide and with many artifacts.  I am not going to identify my source here, but I'm fairly sure he reads this reflector, so maybe he'll join the discussion
> 
> Anyway, I'm kind of at sea - WSJT-X works fine with no bars - I've finished 12 and 17M, as well as digital DXCC in the last few weeks, following his advice.  But the hunting typically takes almost 20 seconds of transmitting - roughly 1 1/2 FT-8 cycles - to reach full power - and happens every time I change bands, which puts me behind the curve if I switch bands, see someone I need, and have to spend 1 1/2 transmit cycles getting up to full power before I can call him effectively.
> 
> 73, Pete N4ZR
> 
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