turn an OLD 1 cpu LAPTOP into a high performance QRQ CW KEYBOARD KEYER for the ELECRAFT K3S

[Chuck aa0hw]

this video demo's using an old 1 CPU laptop as an AFCW mode, QRQ CW KEYBOARD KEYER for an ELECRAFT K3S by using the K3S USB SOUND CARD and AFCW MODE, for keying QRQ CW with the AD5DZ software CW KEYBOARD into the K3S USB SOUND CARD's LINE INPUT...the K3S VOICE VOX CIRCUIT menu setting is "ON"

the old laptop is using the latest release of antiX linux os...which is one of the best distros i have used for this old 1 CPU laptop...

BASIC SETUP

take a USB CABLE from the K3S USB PORT on its rear panel and run it over to the OLD LAPTOP's USB PORT....

use JACK AUDIO CONNECTION KIT on the old laptop, and use the K3S USB SOUND CARD as the JACK AUDIO CONNECTION KIT's AUDIO DEVICE for the old laptop...

load the AD5DZ software CW KEYBOARD on the old laptop
load the AD5DZ software CW KEYER on the old laptop

the AD5DZ CW KEYBOARD will send a 5.68 khz tone to activate the K3S VOICE VOX CIRCUIT, and put the RIG in TRANSMIT READY MODE the AD5DZ CW KEYER will be sending the actual cw tone
NOTE: normally the VOICE VOX CIRCUIT takes some milliseconds of time to take the first bits of audio, analyze it, and then activate the PTT, in QRQ CW , this delay chops off the first bits of any cw element that the VOX CIRCUIT, after being "reset", will use once again to activate the PTT...and this makes qrq cw sound a bit erratic and choppy...etc... so to prevent this from happening... to preserve the timing of EVERY cw element, a VOX ACTIVATION TONE will be sent FIRST, ahead of the actual cw tone that will be converted to RF and TRANSMITTED out the antenna...

the VOX TONE is a high pitched, - 20 db low volume cw element with a pitch of 5.68 khz, and a rise/fall time of 1.3 milliseconds(must have a little rise/fall time to prevent key clicks & harmonic distortion etc..) NOTE: the 5.68 khz tone is way too high of a pitch to get transmitted by the transmit circuits of the K3S...and being way below the volume of the actual cw pitch...too...less than 5 millivolts::50 ohm load, actually reaches the antenna as RF energy...and this is at full power 100 watts on the K3S

the CW TONE is delayed by 15 milliseconds...which gives the first VOX TONE a chance to fully bring the RIG into TRANSMIT READY MODE...so that NO cw elements get chopped off ...

There are many other videos about this kind of setup in this channel, however, what is unique about this particular version of the setup, is using only the AD5DZ cw keyer, kbd as the TONE GENERATOR for both the CW TONE and the VOX TONE...

the K3S VOX HOLD setting on its menu was set to its lowest value for this demo.... ".01 ms" At this value, you can hear QSK RECEIVE AUDIO between letters during the CW being sent from the text file the AD5DZ CW KEYBOARD is using for this example...

the SCOPE view, shows the CW WAVEFORM as it is on the K3S TRANSMIT MONITOR ...and shows that there are no CHOPS on any of the CW ELEMENTS using this method...each cw looks exactly like the original cw output from the AD5DZ CW KEYER's CW AUDIO OUTPUT etc..