Perhaps it would be good for understanding to know that the audio processing algorithms in a K3 are entirely digital. Any analog audio input to the K3 is immediately converted to a number soup, and at that point any analog mental pictures of what happens no longer apply.
ALC, as understood from older analog circuits, is really not a good description. Clipping is not a good description. Our mental expectation from those processes include the effects of diodes that run those processes as implemented in older analog circuit rigs. Even compression, as we are used to hearing it, does not apply. You simply are not driving diodes anywhere in the audio process. Wayne has devised proprietary algorithms for processing the number soup that is your digitized audio. It is our unconscious analog evaluation of four bars solid and the fifth flickering that makes that smell like overdriving and distortion to us. In the number soup plus algorithm world, that is no big deal. In this day and age there are many solid and verified digital processes in use that simply have no analog circuit equivalent at all. The only reason we have "volume controls" is the need for analog-minded operators (that is not a dun, just a reality) to be able to intuitively operate the rig. The four double knobs on the front left of the rig each control a potentiometer which has a standard voltage across it. The wipe of the pot goes to a very minimalist analog-digital converter which then sends a number across a multiplexed digital bus to the CPU. The pot+A/D converter sends NUMERICAL ADVICE to the CPU. Contrary to an analog circuit understanding, there is never an audio voltage across the pot. There will never be scratchy audio due to incomplete contact by the pot wiper arm. The four knobs to the right of the concentrics are all encoders. The advice to the CPU from them is "I have just been advanced one blip clockwise, or one blip counterclockwise." Every effect from those is entirely programmatic in the firmware. The K3 is made to seem like an analog radio to allow intuitive operation, but it is the firmware that sets the essential behavior of the radio. Analog considerations apply to things like amplifiers in the transmit/amplifier chain, or in physical characteristics of synthesizers, etc, for things like distortion, noise, state changes, etc. Brave new world, digital. When I can't stand it any more, I go turn on my Collins 75A3, Johnson Ranger and Courier, breathe a sign of relief and do things the old way for a while. There everything is simple, all tubes, electronic parts you can see without magnification, what I learned from my Elmers, and doesn't require any non-intuitive thinking to understand. If I don't want to deal with throwing all the RX/TX switches, I turn on the Yaesu FT101ZD, which is a treasured gift from PEARL back in my New York days. But it's mostly transistors, so not strictly legit. I put up with all this digital nonsense in a K3 because I like hearing 20 dB farther down into the soup than with my 75A3. I like being able to have my voice processed into something that carries in all the cr*p on the SSB frequencies. I like the visual graphical display of all the frequencies. I like the digital settings that cancel out key clicks. I like the filter response skirts that go all the way down to somewhere below the water table. I really like my K3 for all kinds of reasons. And the ghost of my WCTT Chief Engineer elmer, who spent his time building exact copies of Gates AM BC 833 tube transmitters, holed up in the transmitter building down at the "swamp" in Corbin, Ky where I took my first FCC exam, just gave me a good swift kick in the b*tt, and whispered "Traitor" in my ear. There wasn't a transistor anywhere in that place at the time, and certainly nothing digital except the power switches :>) 73, Y'all Guy K2AV On Mon, Jun 8, 2015 at 1:56 PM, Richard Fjeld <rpfj...@outlook.com> wrote: > Just a comment somewhat related to this thread. Not long ago, a ham with > an SDR set-up was comparing signals in a round-table for proper bandwidth. > > He said my signal was very clean and asked me to crank up my Mic gain to > the max which I reluctantly did for a short transmission. He said it stayed > clean with no splatter. Can that be? I thought any radio would splatter if > over-driven. > > For me, seeing is believing. Dick, n0ce > > > > > > > > > Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2015 16:58:26 -0400 > > From: li...@subich.com > > To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3-P3 SSB spectrum > > > > > > The TX Monitor is a time domain display - not a frequency domain > > display. If you want to see the frequency domain display of your > > own signal, temporarily disconnect the RS-232 cable between the > > two (or connect another SDR to a directional coupler in the antenna > > line). > > > > 73, > > > > ... Joe, W4TV > > > > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to k2av....@gmail.com > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
