Topband: Rig Question

[Tom W8JI]

One reason the K3 requires more care to set up is the ALC system.

Unless this has changed since I measured my K3,  the ALC system does not 
process anything like every other radio. The K3 ALC simply regulates gain to 
keep things linear. The unique ALC system is why the K3 does not have ALC 
overshoot. That deviation from normal is why the ALC and mic gain can't be 
used to "get louder" by using ALC to process the signal, or by shouting.

If you want punch, the only way to get it is with the processor (imagine 
that).

I could clearly see this when I measured average power compared to a 
constant level of peak power, and ran audio gain up. If I did that with a 
traditional ALC system, more gain would bring average closer to peak. When I 
did that on a K3, the effect was much less. The processor in the K3 changes 
the peak to average ratio, while the ALC mostly keeps you out of bandwidth 
or damage trouble.

On my other gear the ALC acts like a crude form of speech processing, 
complete with leading edge overshoot. Shouting makes it "process" or clip, 
like a processor.

73 Tom