[Elecraft] K3 NR in Ver 3.27

[Van W1WCG]

I operate a lot on CW nets, with the b/w set to 700Hz, no EQ, AFX on, 
and use the NR to increase the apparent S/N ratio, and also to soften 
the effect of band noise on the ears.  Before v3.25, this was 
frustrating because the NR took appreciable time to build the filter, 
and appeared to do so on each code element; the overall effect was to 
make the code sound "mushy" and harder to copy.

Then v3.25 came along, and it made a big improvement.  The mushiness was 
gone and by experimenting with the various settings, I could find a 
"sweet point" where the filters were not too aggressive and yet an 
appreciable improvement in copy was obtained.  With v3.27, the filtering 
became even more focussed and this morning I used a 3-3 setting to pull 
weaker stations out of the noise on 40m, which was having one of it's 
less stellar days.  I think the guys at Aptos are definitely going in 
the right direction, especially for the CW side of things.  I've tried 
the NR on a couple of SSB nets, but there the improvement was less easy 
to pick out -- though I think it IS an improvement when you find the 
correct setting.

Not a scientific review, just very subjective $.02 worth.

73, Van W1WCG