"Over the past decade I've used a slew of Ten-Tec and Yaesu xcvrs interfaced to Ten-Tec, Alpha, and Acom amplifiers via plug 'n play keying loops with uniformly excellent performance. The lack of QRO QSK with the K3 may be a big issue with some prospective K3 contesters."
I disagree that this is a problem. The new TenTec Orion and Omni VII transceivers have a minimum "amp-key to RF out" delay of 15ms. The Kenwood TS480 and TS2000 have a minimum delay of 10ms. My Yaesu MKV has an adjustable delay of 0-30ms (5ms default). I measured the delay on my IC-706MKIIG at 15ms, and on a IC-7000 at 10ms. If you have a QSK amp, it will switch at least within 10ms if it uses high speed signal relays, probably around 3-6ms with vacuum relays, and maybe 1-2ms if it uses PIN diodes. Both the THP and SPE solid-state amps switch in 7-10ms using high speed relays. So all you have to do is to adjust your K3 delay to something longer than the amplifier relay switching time. If you have any doubts, set it to 10ms and you should be fine. You can hear where the delay needs to be set by listening to your signal on a second receiver. I experimented with this using my Yaesu MKV and my QSK-modified Ameritron ALS-600. The relays in my modified ALS-600 switch in 3ms (measured with a 'scope). But just for the heck of it, I listened to my signal on a second receiver while I shortened the delay time on my MKV, and I started hearing key clicks in the receiver right around 3ms (just like my measurements had predicted). So I just re-set my MKV to 5ms delay and everything worked fine. I had to set the delay on my MKV to 10ms when I was testing the THP and SPE amps to stop the clicks. Phil - AD5X _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
