[Elecraft] K3 noise reduction

[Bill W5WVO]

Dave Martin wrote:

> Are any of the other radios any better?  Maybe some
> owners of the competing brands could comment.

I've used a few NR systems (not a lot, so this is just anecdotal) including
the system that Bob Heil was marketing for a while (ClearSpeech speaker).
The latter probably worked better than anything else I've tried, but I can
say categorically that I have never seen any NR system that actually makes
an SSB signal easier to copy. In other words, if you can't copy it through
the noise, you're not going to be able to copy it any better with NR applied
to it. My current radio (soon to be replaced by the K3) is a Kenwood
TS-2000, and the NR on it is absolutely useless on SSB. In fact, it's pretty
useless on CW, too, IMHO. I never use it.

NR is very far from being a mature technology! I think we'll see DSP
technology take huge leaps forward over the next few years, and since the
DSP in the K3 is wide open to change, I'm looking forward to continuing
improvement.

That said, I haven't yet experienced the K3 NR. I should have that
opportunity within the next couple of days. :-)

Bill W5WVO