I've had my K3, which I assembled, about a month, outfitted with 13kHz, 6kHz, 2.8kHz, and 400Hz filters. Thus far I've been exceptionally pleased with all aspects of the rig. I've read with interest the audio discussions of this group. There is one area in which I'm not totally satisfied, but this may be due, partially, with my expectations of the rig.
When using CW on noisy bands, meaning the sort of atmospheric noise we often are having now (NOT static crashes from storms), there appears to be an audio product as the bandwidth is narrowed which is annoying to my ears, which occurs both in speakers and phones. This is basically like a ringing of the filters and especially evident as the passband is narrowed to 50-150Hz. This phenomenon is not a problem in quiet conditions nor if the station is especially strong, but can overpower a very weak station. (I'm using a pitch of 600Hz for CW.) (I've tried eliminating the 400Hz filter to make certain there isn't a problem there, and all is well with that filter, apparently.) I've been reducing RF gain and sometimes widening the passband to help aleviate the problem, as well as using the NR. I've also modified the RX equalizer from flat to settings of: #1=0, #2=3, #3=3, #4=-1, #5=-4, #6=-5, #7=-8, #8=-10. Admittedly, part of these settings accomodate SSB to give, what I hear, as a very pleasant sound for that mode. The primary ranges of this noise are affected mostly by filters #4 and #5. If the RX equalizer settings remain flat, hence 0, the sound is even more annoying. But remember this is really only in noisy conditions, so my hypothesis is that the chaotic sounds in the noise are mixing to produce what sounds like a ringing of the filters. (So not necessarily the filters actually ringing, as we think of it.) But this makes working very weak signals very difficult without widening the passband quite a bit. So, guess I would like to hear comments regarding this, as well as settings and techniques people use to combat this phenomenon. 73 ...Edwin, KD5ZLB ____________________________________________________________ "Once you have flown, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, there you long to return."-da Vinci http://bellsouthpwp2.net/e/d/edwinljohnson ______________________________________________________________ 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
