[Elecraft] K3 Power-hunting on FT8

[David Gilbert]

Sorry, but I would want to see live spectrum displays of my own rig with 
a known hardware setup instead of images of some other K3 with unknown 
K3 settings and unknown test setup.  Hundreds of us have been following 
the just barely flickering 5 bar rule with excellent performance.

You know that you're experiencing power hunting the way you are doing it 
... you don't know that you're generating trash the way everyone else 
does it.

73,
Dave  AB7E



On 7/20/2023 7:33 PM, Pete Smith N4ZR 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