although i am not int he market for a radio anytime soon unless I win the lottery, i would love to hear a demonstrate of the k3 or kx3 and the ham pod.

thanks  
73 kb7nlaOn Feb 19, 2014, at 7:11 PM, Rob <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hi Guys,
> 
>     Since there have been some questions regarding the K3/KX3 and 
> HamPod implementation of CW decoding, let me clarify a couple points.
>   The display on the K3/KX3 has two areas referred to as the V F O A 
> display area and the V F O B display area. Usually, these display the 
> related V F O frequencies respectively. When the radio is set to decode 
> CW, it is displayed in the V F O B display area and that display can 
> only show 8 characters at a time so when it is decoding CW, the text is 
> scrolled across that small display. Once the text scrolls across the 
> display, it is gone from sight. That is why most operators connect the 
> radio to a computer running an application to display that decoded text 
> where it remains on the screen for review. Internally the radio 
> maintains a 40 byte buffer of the decoded  text and the contents of that 
> buffer is available through the serial port. The K3 and KX3 currently 
> also decode PSK31 and RTTY signals and there is talk of adding PSK63 in 
> the future. So with the HamPod, I can access that 40 character buffer 
> and speak its contents. While that sounds good at first glance, there 
> are issues here. I continuously read the buffer but in order to 
> correctly pronounce the text, I need to wait until a complete word or 
> block of text appears so I can sensibly speak it as a word or read it a 
> letter at a time in case it is a call sign or other non word. This means 
> there is some latency when receiving  before the text will be spoken. 
> Normally that is good and is not a problem unless you are trying to tune 
> in the signal. If the signal is marginal or not properly tuned in, you 
> are likely to get jibberish and there can be a length of time before a 
> break or space comes along so I can try to format and speak that text.  
> Also, undecodable text is replaced by an Asterisk character within the 
> radio so you hear a lot of those. All these factors make tuning in the 
> signal a bit challenging. With experience, you begin to know what a 
> correctly tuned signal sounds like which helps make this easier. A 
> sighted user can instantly see the display as they tune in the signal 
> which is a tremendous help. The other frustration is that once the text 
> goes by, it is gone. There is no way to review it as there is when 
> running an application on a connected computer. I have some thoughts on 
> how to try to implement a better tuning mode and will add that in the 
> future. But despite those short comings, with a good, properly tuned 
> signal, it is pretty neat to hear the HamPod read the data mode text to 
> you.
> 
> Hope that helps,
> Rob
> K6DQ