[Elecraft] Tight Skirts...

[Larry Phipps]

Sounds like the age old debate in the hifi world about the "sweet" sound 
of tube amplifiers vs. the "hard" sound of clearly superior modern solid 
state amps.

Preferences aside about slopes and shape factors... I'd like to have 
MUCH better ultimate rejection... and a true rf clipper would be a nice 
addition, especially when using QRP.

Larry N8LP



Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:

>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
>
>
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