Hiss is my biggest complaint regarding my K3. To cut down the irritation
I send the audio to a pair of Behringer amplified studio speakers and
cut back on the highs on the internal speaker equalizer. I also have
played considerably with the K3's RX Eq and with the AGC. Further, I
have set the AGC back so that it does not immediately rise the
background noise when a loud signal stops. Don't forget to add the ATT
into the mix - it can really help when the noise is bad.
The "noise" is, to me, the background band noise - with QRM and QRN. I
live in a rural area where the typical daytime noise level is less than
S1. At that level, I don't think there should be anything coming from
the speakers. When the bands are noisy - well, simply put, the K3 is
hard to continue listening to.
I have listened to a TS590 and it IS a quieter receiver and more
pleasant to listen to for hours at a time. I own a couple of TS480s and
they are both more pleasant to listen to in the long run. All that said,
my settings have brought the K3 to _nearly_ as good as the Kenwoods -
which is _nearly_ acceptable. To be fair, both the Kenwoods and the K3
need operator made menu settings to attain the desired RX audio.
I have the P3 and some extra SSB and AM filters and boards - so I am
deep into life with the K3. Everything is extra on the K3 (filters, SWL
listening, AM, tuner, etc.) - but - - -after about $3600 I have a rig
that is about equal to the TS590. Ya Ya! I know that is a harsh
statement, but for my purposes it is quite accurate.
I operate only on 160, 75, and 40 meters. Nets and rag chew. Hence, I
enjoy serious armchair copy.
Someone asked the other day if I would rather have a 590 and I replied
in the affirmative. However, I am not about to take a thousand dollar
licking as punishment for having wanted a USA made product.
So................ I'll be keeping my K3.
Bill W2BLC
______________________________________________________________
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
