[Elecraft] K3 Audio Reports
I tried running the Audio test described below with my K3 DVR and for some reason my own audio is not being recorded. The DVR works fine recording and playing audio off the air. But when I attempt to record my own audio as described below, when I play it back to you can hear audio go to zero for time of my recording and then back to whatever was previously recorded. Any ideas what I may be doing wrong? 73 Paul kc2nyuIf you have the DVR option, you have a good tool to evaluate your audio signal. Record some audio and then play it back. That way you avoid the bone conduction problem of listening to yourself live in the monitor and eliminate the subjective element of on-the-air reports which are dependent on the other ops receiver and his personal opinion of how you should sound. 73, Don W3FPR __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 Audio reports
Mike, If you turn compression off and talk into the microphone (you can do that in TX TEST and no RF will be generated) how much deflection do you have on the ALC meter. It should be 5 to 7 bars for proper audio drive and power control (which can affect the audio quality). After setting the Mic Gain to achieve that level, you can add in some compression - about 10 dB is right for most operation. If you have the DVR option, you have a good tool to evaluate your audio signal. Record some audio and then play it back. That way you avoid the bone conduction problem of listening to yourself live in the monitor and eliminate the subjective element of on-the-air reports which are dependent on the other ops receiver and his personal opinion of how you should sound. 73, Don W3FPR On 1/3/2015 1:27 PM, Michael Sell wrote: New to the list, looking for some input on Audio Quality and a discovery made by myself and another owner. This may be old hat, but hope to find out the cause. Since buying my K3 secondhand, I have always received audio quality reports from sounds like rf in your audio to rough sounding audio, especially at the peaks, or your audio sound hollow or distorted I've been all over the place trying to fix this. Grounding mods, ferrite filters, sold the KPA500 and got a new amp, even got rid of my EV RE 20 and Symetrics 528E and went with a Heil Pro 30 straight into the radio. Still the same reports! Finally got on with two other K3 owners and did some testing. We found that for two of us, we had the same problem and same audio. One did not. We found that for two of us the problem was solved by advancing the compressor setting to at least 16 with 21 being the best setting. The audio in both our K3's smoothed out and now sounded excellent. Below a 16 setting the audio issue began and progressively got worse down to 0. My questions is why? I have never been a proponent of running compression. I'm doing it and since I started, I'm now getting excellent audio reports. The other odd thing is that the 3rd ham in this test did not experience bad audio with the compressor turned down or off. We are all running the same firmware version. Could it be something in the set up of the ALC in the audio section or is this a known bug? __ 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
[Elecraft] K3 Audio reports
New to the list, looking for some input on Audio Quality and a discovery made by myself and another owner. This may be old hat, but hope to find out the cause. Since buying my K3 secondhand, I have always received audio quality reports from sounds like rf in your audio to rough sounding audio, especially at the peaks, or your audio sound hollow or distorted I've been all over the place trying to fix this. Grounding mods, ferrite filters, sold the KPA500 and got a new amp, even got rid of my EV RE 20 and Symetrics 528E and went with a Heil Pro 30 straight into the radio. Still the same reports! Finally got on with two other K3 owners and did some testing. We found that for two of us, we had the same problem and same audio. One did not. We found that for two of us the problem was solved by advancing the compressor setting to at least 16 with 21 being the best setting. The audio in both our K3's smoothed out and now sounded excellent. Below a 16 setting the audio issue began and progressively got worse down to 0. My questions is why? I have never been a proponent of running compression. I'm doing it and since I started, I'm now getting excellent audio reports. The other odd thing is that the 3rd ham in this test did not experience bad audio with the compressor turned down or off. We are all running the same firmware version. Could it be something in the set up of the ALC in the audio section or is this a known bug? Thanks for listening... 73 K0COM Mike Bloomington, MN __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] K3 Audio reports
On Sat,1/3/2015 10:27 AM, Michael Sell wrote: Since buying my K3 secondhand, I have always received audio quality reports from sounds like rf in your audio to rough sounding audio, especially at the peaks, or your audio sound hollow or distorted Did you check TXEQ? The fact that it sounds better with Compression suggests that TXEQ may be screwed up. I've been all over the place trying to fix this. Grounding mods, ferrite filters, sold the KPA500 and got a new amp, even got rid of my EV RE 20 and Symetrics 528E and went with a Heil Pro 30 straight into the radio. Still the same reports! Why would you use a 528E for a dynamic mic like the RE20 with a ham rig? Virtually all dynamic mics can be connected directly to the K3 mic connector with a simple XLR to Foster plug adapter. One side of the balanced mic output goes to Mic In, the other side and the cable shield go to the chassis. An outboard preamp is needed only for a pro electret mic, and then only to provide the phantom power. Finally got on with two other K3 owners and did some testing. We found that for two of us, we had the same problem and same audio. One did not. We found that for two of us the problem was solved by advancing the compressor setting to at least 16 with 21 being the best setting. First, don't go by the numerical readout for Compression. Instead, set the K3 display to show ALC and Compression. The right thing to watch is the Compression bar graph. For contesting and DX chasing, adjust the Compression control for about 10 dB on peaks. Do this AFTER you have set the TXEQ. For more general operation, you may like 6 dB better. Communications mics are designed with a built-in peak around 3-4 kHz to compensate for the rolloff of the crystal filter. Pro mics don't have this peak (although some vocal mics like the SM58 have a peak around 8-10 kHz), so pro mics need TXEQ boost in the two top bands of TXEQ. 6 dB is a good starting point. Virtually all mics need low frequency rolloff so that power is not wasted on LF energy that does not contribute to speech intelligibility. A good starting point for all mics is max cut of the three lowest bands, then get on the air reports for setting the 4th band. The other guy listening should have his IF set pretty wide for this test. I'm a retired sound and recording engineer, so I own RE16s, RE20s, RE27s, and lots of other mics. Before I found the CM500, the mic in my shack was an RE16 on a boom stand. With both mics I get reports of excellent audio, but I like the CM500 because it's a boom mic attached to a comfy headset. 73, Jim K9YC __ 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
