[Elecraft] K3 noise blanker

[Tom W8JI]

> Having, in waiting for my K3, read all sorts of accolades 
> for the NB and NR,
> I feel, now that I have the radio in front of me, somewhat 
> deflated.  The NB
> is, it seems to me, no better than many others I have used 
> (eg TS-850) and
> the NR does not seem, to me at least, to be any better 
> than that on the
> TS-480 this K3 replaced.

>> Have to agree with you on that, Jim. It's definitely a 
>> trade-off
>> between noise suppression and signal intelligibility. As 
>> with many
>> things, it works better on CW than it does on SSB.


I think perhaps the people that are ecstatic about noise 
reduction have noise that is greatly different than the type 
of signal they are trying to copy. The unhappy campers are 
trying remove noise that is similar in characteristics to 
what they are trying to hear. If the blanker or reduction 
system can't tell the noise from the signal it can't work no 
matter how much time and effort is put in the design.

An RF noise nulling device would be a solution if the noise 
is from a defined direction and source.

This reminds me a little of that "For Eyes" commercial.

73 Tom