[Elecraft] New K3 owner, couple of questions (APF vs. DUAL PB, NR under the water sound, KPA3 temp)
Hi, I put together my new K3 without any issues. My 8 and 10 year old daughters helped and they really enjoyed it too. Overall I am very happy with its performance. I do not seem to need PRE on the high bands as much, but I do seem to need ATT on the low bands more... I guess that is by design. I have a few things I need to figure out and the manual does not seem to help: 1. DUAL PB, APF. I am not sure I get the APF to work. I do not hear or see the middle peak of the filter. I think I only get DUAL PB, no matter what I set in the config menu. I am using the latest FW. Any ideas how to verify? 2. NR: I like how the noise goes away, but I do not like the under-the-water sound (K2 owner, no DSP experience). I seem to switch constantly back and forth... I am using the default setting for NR (F1-1). Is there a way to back off the setting slightly to have a better compromise setting? 3. KPA3 temp: The fans are MUCH quieter as my K2's which is good, but I do worry that I have not setup something right...When I monitor the KPA3 temperature, what is the max value that I should watch out for? I am getting up to 41 C during casual operation. Thanks in advance and 73, Andy KU7T __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] New K3 owner, couple of questions (APF vs. DUAL PB, NR under the water sound, KPA3 temp)
Andy, Congratulations on the new K3! I've had mine about three years and love it. I can only answer one part of one question for you - the Dual PB comes into play only in RTTY operations. It shouldn't enabled for other modes. To help you learn about your K3, you might consider purchasing Fred Cady's book, The Elecraft K3: Design, Configuration, and Operation, from Lulu.com (http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=Fred+Cadytype=Not+Servicesite search=lulu.comq=). It will tell you all you need to know, and then some, about the K3. And, no, Fred isn't giving me kick-backs for promoting his book. I'm just another happy customer with no financial interest (unless you count knowing how to run the multi-thousands of dollars piece of equipment at my operating station). Hope this helps. 73 de, -- Ian Ian Kahn, KM4IK Roswell, GA EM74ua km4ik@gmail.com K3 #281, P3 #688, KPA500 #1468 HRD v5.x/6.0 Test Team -Original Message- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Andreas Hofmann Sent: Monday, March 10, 2014 1:07 PM To: 'elecraft@mailman.qth.net' Subject: [Elecraft] New K3 owner, couple of questions (APF vs. DUAL PB, NR under the water sound, KPA3 temp) Hi, I put together my new K3 without any issues. My 8 and 10 year old daughters helped and they really enjoyed it too. Overall I am very happy with its performance. I do not seem to need PRE on the high bands as much, but I do seem to need ATT on the low bands more... I guess that is by design. I have a few things I need to figure out and the manual does not seem to help: 1. DUAL PB, APF. I am not sure I get the APF to work. I do not hear or see the middle peak of the filter. I think I only get DUAL PB, no matter what I set in the config menu. I am using the latest FW. Any ideas how to verify? 2. NR: I like how the noise goes away, but I do not like the under-the-water sound (K2 owner, no DSP experience). I seem to switch constantly back and forth... I am using the default setting for NR (F1-1). Is there a way to back off the setting slightly to have a better compromise setting? 3. KPA3 temp: The fans are MUCH quieter as my K2's which is good, but I do worry that I have not setup something right...When I monitor the KPA3 temperature, what is the max value that I should watch out for? I am getting up to 41 C during casual operation. Thanks in advance and 73, Andy KU7T __ 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 --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.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
Re: [Elecraft] New K3 owner, couple of questions (APF vs. DUAL PB, NR under the water sound, KPA3 temp)
I saved this gem of a post from Jack WA9FVP Re: [Elecraft] [K3]Noise Filter (NF) ADJ wa9fvp Thu, 27 Dec 2012 16:19:36 -0800 There's no documentation but as far as I can tell-- F1-x through F4-x defines the amount of noise reduction or how aggressive the filter attacks the I.F. noise. F5-X through F8-X defines the amount of reduction and the level that's mixed with the filtered and non-filtered I.F. Note that m which means mix will appear after F5-X and above. X defines the delay. Delay is the amount of time it takes for the filter to converge on a non-sinusoidal signal or the noise. The higher the number, the longer it takes for the noise to reduce to a low level. I hope this helps. Jack WA9FVP F1-x through F4-x are for CW F5-x through F8-x are for SSB On 3/10/2014 12:06 PM, Andreas Hofmann wrote: Hi, I put together my new K3 without any issues. My 8 and 10 year old daughters helped and they really enjoyed it too. Overall I am very happy with its performance. I do not seem to need PRE on the high bands as much, but I do seem to need ATT on the low bands more... I guess that is by design. I have a few things I need to figure out and the manual does not seem to help: 1. DUAL PB, APF. I am not sure I get the APF to work. I do not hear or see the middle peak of the filter. I think I only get DUAL PB, no matter what I set in the config menu. I am using the latest FW. Any ideas how to verify? 2. NR: I like how the noise goes away, but I do not like the under-the-water sound (K2 owner, no DSP experience). I seem to switch constantly back and forth... I am using the default setting for NR (F1-1). Is there a way to back off the setting slightly to have a better compromise setting? 3. KPA3 temp: The fans are MUCH quieter as my K2's which is good, but I do worry that I have not setup something right...When I monitor the KPA3 temperature, what is the max value that I should watch out for? I am getting up to 41 C during casual operation. Thanks in advance and 73, Andy KU7T -- GB 73 K5OAI Sam Morgan __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] New K3 owner, couple of questions (APF vs. DUAL PB, NR under the water sound, KPA3 temp)
Regarding the APF there are a couple of notes (in the KX3 area!) which may help: http://www.elecraft.com/KX3/tips/Using%20APF%20for%20weak%20signal%20CW%20work%20the%20K3%20and%20KX3.pdf http://www.elecraft.com/KX3/tips/Using%20APF%20with%20the%20K3%20and%20KX3.pdf Phil On 3/10/14, 10:06 AM, Andreas Hofmann wrote: Hi, I put together my new K3 without any issues. My 8 and 10 year old daughters helped and they really enjoyed it too. Overall I am very happy with its performance. I do not seem to need PRE on the high bands as much, but I do seem to need ATT on the low bands more... I guess that is by design. I have a few things I need to figure out and the manual does not seem to help: 1. DUAL PB, APF. I am not sure I get the APF to work. I do not hear or see the middle peak of the filter. I think I only get DUAL PB, no matter what I set in the config menu. I am using the latest FW. Any ideas how to verify? __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] New K3 owner, couple of questions (APF vs. DUAL PB, NR under the water sound, KPA3 temp)
And in the Config Menu you need to set DUAL PB to APF vs. nor Phil On 3/10/14, 11:38 AM, Phil Wheeler wrote: Regarding the APF there are a couple of notes (in the KX3 area!) which may help: http://www.elecraft.com/KX3/tips/Using%20APF%20for%20weak%20signal%20CW%20work%20the%20K3%20and%20KX3.pdf http://www.elecraft.com/KX3/tips/Using%20APF%20with%20the%20K3%20and%20KX3.pdf Phil On 3/10/14, 10:06 AM, Andreas Hofmann wrote: Hi, I put together my new K3 without any issues. My 8 and 10 year old daughters helped and they really enjoyed it too. Overall I am very happy with its performance. I do not seem to need PRE on the high bands as much, but I do seem to need ATT on the low bands more... I guess that is by design. I have a few things I need to figure out and the manual does not seem to help: 1. DUAL PB, APF. I am not sure I get the APF to work. I do not hear or see the middle peak of the filter. I think I only get DUAL PB, no matter what I set in the config menu. I am using the latest FW. Any ideas how to verify? __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] New K3 owner, couple of questions (APF vs. DUAL PB, NR under the water sound, KPA3 temp)
Hi Andy, 1. The Dual PB/APF button has multiple functions. First of all, it is different in CW than in RTTY, and it doesn't do anything in other modes (SSB, DATA A, etc.). In CW, the Dual PB button has two functions, depending on whether CONFIG:DUAL PB is set to APF or NOR. In the APF configuration in CW, it is a very narrow audio peaking filter. Tuning of signals is touchy - even a 10-20 Hz change can make the difference between copy and no copy on a weak signal. The APF doesn't do much for strong signals - it's for pulling very weak CW signals out of the noise. In the NOR configuration in CW, the dual PB filter gives you a stepped filter bandpass, with a 150 Hz center portion set within a broader context bandpass about 20 dB down from the central bandpass; the width of the broader context bandpass is controlled by the WIDTH control. The effect is most obvious when WIDTH is set wide, say to 700-1000 Hz. Without the DUAL PB, signals several hundred Hz away but within the bandpass are strong; with DUAL PB, they are attenuated but still audible, although not as strong as signals within the narrower central bandpass; when WIDTH is narrowed down, with or without DUAL PB signals that far away become inaudible. When WIDTH is at, say, 400 Hz or so, the effect of the DUAL PB setting is not quite as obvious - the stepped response is not all that different from what you may be used to using normal crystal filtering without DSP. In RTTY (FSK D or AFSK A), the Dual PB button gives you a dual peak filter peaked on the two tones of the RTTY signal. In theory, this actually degrades the performance of a well-designed demodulator, so you might be better off not using it routinely, but in the situation where there are two overlapping RTTY signals with the mark or space of the interfering signal in between the mark and space of the one you are trying to work, it may help reduce the interference. 2. I can't help with NR. 3. KPA3 temp: at 41C, from a thermal point of view your PA is loafing. In heavier use (RTTY or heavy CW contesting use), it will climb up into the 50s or even the low 60s (depends on the ambient temperature, of course), and the fans will speed up. You can hear what the fans sound like at the different speed levels by using the CONFIG:KPA3 menu and changing it temporarily from NOR to FN1, FN2, FN3 or FN4. I don't think I have ever gotten my PA temp high enough to switch to the FN4 level automatically (somewhere around 65-70C, perhaps?), but I have reached the FN2 and FN3 levels during contests (FN3 mostly in RTTY). The KPA3 is supposed to protect itself by shutting off at 84C, but I've never seen anything approaching that level. You may see the PA TEMP indication change slightly during transmit as compared to receive. I believe this is caused by the voltage difference between TX and RX (if for no other reason than resistive losses in the power cable). You can set the PA TEMP display to RX-only if necessary to avoid this effect. 73, Rich VE3KI __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] New K3 owner, couple of questions (APF vs. DUAL PB, NR under the water sound, KPA3 temp)
Not using the dual pass-band mode, due to the degradation Rich notes, is the consensus of some of the best RTTY contest operators of our acquaintance. Jack, W6NF/VE4SNA Shelley, K7MKL On 3/10/2014 1:21 PM, Richard Ferch wrote: In RTTY (FSK D or AFSK A), the Dual PB button gives you a dual peak filter peaked on the two tones of the RTTY signal. In theory, this actually degrades the performance of a well-designed demodulator, so you might be better off not using it routinely, but in the situation where there are two overlapping RTTY signals with the mark or space of the interfering signal in between the mark and space of the one you are trying to work, it may help reduce the interference. 73, Rich VE3KI --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.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
