[Elecraft] DSP and CW?

[Tom Hammond]

Fellas:

Stephen W. Kercel wrote:

>There is one claim that I thought was an exaggeration, until I heard 
>for myself. With the denoiser on and set very aggressive, the audio 
>output in the absence of a signal is so quiet that you'll think that 
>the radio is off. This in no exaggeration. On a quiet band with the 
>denoiser on, I find myself occasionally toggling it off just to 
>verify that the radio is working OK.

Like Steve, I've found the Noise Reduction to make received signals 
'watery', BUT when I use it (and I ONLY use it mobile) it is 
absolutely WONDERFUL for nearly making it as though there was a CW 
SQUELCH feature in the K2. Virtually all(!) background noises 
disappear and I only hear something when there's an in-band signal 
present. Sometimes I leave the DSP NR enables throughout the QSO, 
other times I don't. It depends upon what I'm listening for at the 
time, but the NR DOES WORK.

>On the other hand, I have never found the noise blanker to be 
>effective against the kind of noise present in my setting. Again, 
>the experience of different users varies according to their circumstances.

I've had GREAT experiences with the NB, and then some less than great 
as well. MOST(!) times it'll do a very fine job of blanking spikey 
interference, but then there are times when it's as though I never 
turned it on.

Would I buy either again...yup... BOTH!  Though, if you don't need 
the NR feature of the DSP, the KAF2 is a nice, lower cost alternative 
for CW reception. I don't operate fone, so I can't comment upon how 
the DSP works on SSB.

73,

Tom Hammond    N0SS