[Elecraft] Tight Skirts...

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Merlin, W3ICT wrote:

...nobody else I've observed on this net seems to be as  annoyed as I about
the bad 
skirts, high ripple, bad ultimate selectivity,  etc. when the K2 is used
with the 
KSB2. ...On sideband, tight skirts (the electronic kind, gentlemen!) are
terribly  
important, maybe more so than on CW.  There is nothing neater than
listening to 
a weak SSB signal through an IF system that has a 1.2:1 shape  factor.

--------------

My SSB operating is only casual but I can say with half a century of
operating behind me that I absolutely LOATHE steep-sided filters on CW. They
produce a lot of "trash" in the bandpass caused by the way they modulate
signals on edge of the bandpass. Of course, signals varying at all in
frequency, including noise, are amplitude-modulated by the filter slope,
with causes further sidebands, etc. 

A lot of work has been done by both engineers and mathematicians working out
the best shape to minimize these effects, but this ol' operator simply likes
listening to a big chunk of the band at one time and letting my grey-filter
between the ears do the work for me. 

I use OPT1 a lot for CW, and switch to the narrower filters mostly when I
need the improved S/N ratio the narrower bandpass provides to dig for a weak
signal. From many QSO's and posts on this reflector and others, I know that
I am not alone in that preference. 

Even so, I bet if you came up with ways to make the improvements you'd like
to see, I bet lots of operators who love tight skirts would appreciate your
efforts.  

One thing about Elecraft is that they encourage experimenting and improving.
A number of the "improvements" that have been made to the K2 over the years
have been the direct result of someone like you sitting down and saying
"What if...."  

Ron AC7AC