[Elecraft] Suggestions for good 192kHz external sound card fordigital modes

[Alan]

I agree with Don.  A high sample rate and large dynamic range are 
important for a panadapter but not for digital modes via the audio 
in/out of a transceiver.

Even a 16-bit sound card theoretically has 96 dB dynamic range. True, it 
is probably not that good in practice, but it's hard to imagine the 
noise would be high enough to affect decoding the digital signal.  For 
example, if the signal is S9 and the noise is S2, that's only (9-2) * 6 
= 42 dB signal to noise ratio (assuming 6 dB per S-unit).

Another factor is that 192 ksamples/sec sound cards need custom drivers 
that you have to install.  The standard USB audio device driver that is 
built into Windows is only good to 48 ksamples/sec (stereo) as I recall.

Alan N1AL


On 11/11/2014 06:08 PM, Don Wilhelm wrote:
> David,
>
> A regular 16 bit soundcard will do well when being used for digital 
> modes.  Yes, the better soundcards have a lower noise floor which can 
> help, but great bandwidth and bit rates are not required for those 
> applications.
> OTOH, if you are looking at panadapter applications, a good soundcard 
> is important to get 192 kHz span width with low noise, and you sill 
> want to use it at the higher bit rates unless you are satisfied with a 
> 96 kHz span.
>
> Select your needs and then select the soundcard that will fulfill 
> those needs.  Even the lowly 16 bit cards are adequate for data mode 
> applications.
>
> 73,
> Don W3FPR
>
> On 11/11/2014 8:51 PM, dmoes at nexicom.net wrote:
>>
>> Im just curious
>>
>> I can see the bit depth making a difference   16 bit will have poor 
>> dynamic range compared to 24 or 32 bit  and this is important for 
>> some modes like wspr or JTXX,   but is there any advantage to high 
>> bit rates in digital modes    even a 44khz card has a bandwidth way 
>> beond what any digital mode on HF needs.        or is it that to get 
>> a 32bit adapter just by default it will have high bit rates.
>>
>
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