I have been realizing over time that my QTH/antenna is high noise even though I have underground utilities. I have been one of the complainers about the startup blast of noise when the rig is first turned on. I now know that my normal S-7 band noise is the underlying problem and when the K3 turns on I get a +30dB blast of noise that is just shocking. That blast will go away soon in a new firmware release. But the problem of high noise remains.
So what to do? I hate narrow bandwidth filters because they sound like a hurricane whistling in a cave. Anything less than 1 KHz sounds terrible to my ears. I think many of you cannot understand this but until now I thought the K3 had terrible audio. I have been seeing many of you operate with 200 Hz or so filters and I just shudder at the thought. The narrower the filter the worse the audio. If you put a noise generator into your K3 and listened to the hollow sound with narrow filters you might begin to understand my problem. I use an inverted V on 40M, center up 35 feet. Okay this is a cloud burner and maybe this is my real problem. I do see seasonable and daily variations in background noise so my background noise is not 100% local. I have seen S3 on 40M on occasion, usually early morning or night as we head into winter. My S-Meter has been calibrated. I know that people use separate antennas on the low bands because of noise. Is there a suggestion for a really low noise antenna on 40M? I need a drastic reduction or I need to move. My audio is quite fatiguing and it has been quite a problem to operate CW if I need narrow filters to discriminate. When I can copy at 1 KHz or broader, life is good. I operate on phone when the SNR is good, if not I just don't operate. Mike Scott AE6WA Tarzana, CA K3/100 SN508
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