Hi, Al I have a long list of things that will clip dits, and only one of them involved the K3, and that went away nicely with the new synthesizers.
El Numero Uno contest QSK problem, with nothing in second place, is QSK dealing with amplifiers that will not do T/R turn-around (including the relay points *settling*) in less time than the space between dits :>) The manufacturers do not want to deal with it because it's either expensive and tricky with relays, or it's pin diodes that get whacked at full QRO from transmitting into an open, static on the antenna, lightning induced pulses, etc. Some hams do fine with the pin diodes and others have nothing but trouble with them, depends on a lot of things. Some transceiver manufacturers simply clip the keyed input if the delay is too long, a defensive solution resulting in short dits but *not* burning amp relays or carbon-arcing amplifier bandswitches. Myself, I have given up on contest QSK, and let my microHam u2R handle providing PTT to the amp and delay to the u2R generated code. Since the u2R (not the K3) converts both ascii data via a serial cable from the PC and my paddle input to keyed line, and it uses the WinKey chip to do most of that, it is also in a position to slightly delay the onset of morse output just a little behind a PTT output. That delay can be set to match the most atrocious T/R relay, including an old unmodified AL1200, with never a clipped dit. That is separate from the ancient problem of a computer not quite having enough processing power to handle the operating system AND generate pristine on/off morse code key output. Again some do OK generating code this way and others have awful problems with it. The reasons why or why not are often not clear at all. These issues have gigabytes of postings on the subject in the various ham archives, rehashed ad nauseum as the subject comes up over and over again over the last two decades. It certainly is anything but an recently emergent problem. With my settings, the Alpha drops at the end of each letter, which is good enough to hear if someone already started sending under me and I can stop paddling or hit escape. I gave up on contest QSK not because of the K3, but because of the general issues that touch everything, and I am tired of replacing relays in amplifiers and finding out I have clicks when the contacts go bad. When there is a transistor full QRO amp using battleship grade pin diodes, where the entire amp is as reliable as the KPA500 or my tube Alpha, **and that does not exceed the rest of my station in purchase price**, I'll switch. But I *continue* to hear stories about pin diodes and transistor amps blowing finals, even if some insist that theirs have always been fine (God bless them, I envy their good luck). Last night in the ARRL 160 contest there was a K0 station that could not send "IA" for his section. Before dit-dropping occurred to me, he was sending "EA" for section and I was asking for a fill. 73, Guy K2AV On Fri, Dec 4, 2015 at 12:44 PM, Al Lorona <[email protected] <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');>> wrote: > Right after the CW SS I composed a message for the list, then trashed it > after sleeping on it which I always do before posting. Now that the issue > has come up on its own I wish to make an observation. > > During the contest I heard many stations with shortened dits. They sounded > pretty bad and I reckon they weren't listening to themselves else they'd > have done something about it. > > Presuming that some of these signals were coming out of K3's [because some > of these were well-known contesters] I actually got nervous and checked my > own signal which, like Tom's, is generated by N1MM+ keying the K3 through > DTR, but was relieved to find that my dits were okay. > > So there's something going on out there, and I don't know what it is, but > what I do know is that keying through the USB-to-Serial is proven to work > well as Tom has verified. He should know; he is a very QRQ CW op. > > Al W6LX > > -- Sent via Gmail Mobile on my iPhone ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to [email protected]
