[Elecraft] [K3] Noise Blanking, all-mode squelch- any strategies for settings?

[Don Wilhelm]

There is no 'secret recipe'.
As has been pointed out by several others, the NB settings must be 
adjusted to best deal with the noise you are encountering at any given 
time on any given band. Also, when dealing with the DSP based Noise 
Blanker, give it a little time to build the filter that will be used to 
do the job - count to 5 is a good suggestion. If you are using the 
hardware NB, you should hear the effects almost immediately.

Listen to the noise before deciding whether NB or NR is the proper tool 
to use. The NB works on high rise time, short impulse noise. It will not 
be effective at all on more constant noise sources like powerline or AC 
motor noise - those type noises will respond to the NR settings.

Noise Blanking is just what it says - it puts a blank 'hole' in the 
receiver stream, and yes the K3 allows you to adjust it to control not 
only the threshold where it begins to act, but also the width of the 
blanking. You as a listener must come to a compromise - if the blanking 
width is too wide for the transmission mode, those holes will begin to 
disrupt the communications as the width becomes wider.

With Noise Reduction, the DSP builds a filter around what it detects to 
be a coherent signal. It takes a little time for the DSP to sense that 
it has a coherent signal and build that filter. You will also find that 
the NR function will cause distortion when that filter is narrow. How 
effective NR will be depends on the relative strength of the noise and 
the signal that you want to hear.

So experiment a bit and you will become more adept at selecting between 
NB and NR as the occasion arises. It is not a "catch all" for all noise 
sources. Your selection and settings will vary from time to time and 
band to band. I suggest running most of the time with both NB and NR off 
and letting your brain do most of the filtering. When that is 
bothersome, turn the appropriate one on and find the best settings that 
attack your particular noise source.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 7/30/2014 6:14 PM, dmb at lightstream.net wrote:
> What’s your secret recipe for picking NB settings that work?
>
>