You've already done the one thing that does the biggest part of keeping signals, and especially noise, in appropriate range, making the RF gain at max roughly right. I sometimes back off RF gain about an 1/8 turn if it's really bad noisy.
The only RF gain adjustments in a K3 are the PRE/ATT settings. The variable gain is in the IF, even if the pot says RF gain. Strictly speaking, your RF gain is +10 on 10 and 12, maybe 15, 0 on 20 and 30, -10 on 80 and 160, maybe 40. I have had numbers of conversations with K3 owners who turned on PRE, left it there, all bands, all modes and wondered why the K3 roared at them on the low bands. I'd also have to say that the reasons why were more often than not hard to explain and get across. Got no idea why so hard to explain. And a couple guys that simply did not believe it. " I run the preamp on 12 and 10m, sometimes but not always on 15m, nothing on 20 and 30, occasionally Attenuator on 40, always on 80 and 160. I've never tried 60m." ...is the most important part of what you described. 73, Guy On Thu, May 19, 2011 at 9:41 PM, Fred Jensen <[email protected]> wrote: > On 5/19/2011 5:30 PM, Guy Olinger K2AV wrote: >> You haven't told us what settings you have on ATT/PRE, per band. That >> would make a huge difference in how things worked out. > > Sorry! I run the preamp on 12 and 10m, sometimes but not always on 15m, > nothing on 20 and 30, occasionally Attenuator on 40, always on 80 and > 160. I've never tried 60m. > > 73, > > Fred K6DGW > - Northern California Contest Club > - CU in the 2011 Cal QSO Party 1-2 Oct 2011 > - www.cqp.org > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[email protected] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

