[Elecraft] Another urban legend: clicks needed for readability

[Vic Rosenthal]

Earl W Cunningham wrote:

> > "Keep in mind that the effect of narrowing the bandwidth in your receiver
> > is to round the edges of the received signal."
> ----------
> Keep in mind that the primary reason, IMO, is to increase the S/N of the
> receiver so that you can hear weak signals better.  An unmodified
> (clicky) K2 1 kHz away from my receive frequency is painfully obvious
> when I'm using narrow filters.
> ==========

My point was that if you are using high selectivity, then you will not 
be able to tell the difference between a hard or soft signal when you 
are listening on its frequency.  I was responding to the (IMO false) 
proposition that a hard signal is more readable under adverse conditions.

> "To put it another way, the only time you can distinguish a hard from a
> soft signal is when it is loud and you are using low selectivity."  
> ----------
> A signal out of your receiver's passband that has clicks is more apparent
> when using high selectivity, not low.

I was talking about distinguishing hard from soft when listening to the 
signal.  Obviously you can hear the clicks better if you are listening 
with high selectivity OFF the frequency of the signal.

> If you want to maintain the respect of operators who are in QSO adjacent
> to your signal, do the click mod, regardless of whether you are QRP or
> QRO!

I couldn't agree more.

-- 
73,
Vic, K2VCO
Fresno CA
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco