[Elecraft] 5 pole vs. 8 pole filters

[Vic K2VCO]

aa4nc at aol.com wrote:
> After operating a few contests with my K3, I think I may need to upgrade roofing
> filters, especially on SSB. I have the stock 2.7 and the 5 pole 500Hz CW installed now.
> 
> Can anyone comment on the real world contest performance of the 8 pole vs. the 5 pole
> filters? On SSB with the width dialed in to 1.8-2.0 Khz, I have stations at S9 and
> above that are easily copyable at over 4 Khz wide which makes it tough on a crowded
> phone band.

I can't compare them but I don't think the performance will be that different. There is a 
1.8 kHz filter which some have found highly effective for SSB contesting. But keep in mind 
that the filter is only a backstop to the DSP filtering which comes into play if you have 
signals greater than about S9+20 which are inside the passband of the wider filter. It's 
quite possible that many of the 4 kHz wide signals that you are hearing are in fact wide 
signals caused by overdriven amplifiers, etc.

> I'm told that the Inrad supplies the filters to Elecraft, so is there really only one
> filter source?

Elecraft does additional testing of the filters it gets from INRAD, so it's advisable to 
get them from Elecraft.
-- 
73,
Vic, K2VCO
Fresno CA
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco