[Elecraft] Analog vs. Digital Front Ends

[Lynn W. Taylor, WB6UUT]

On 9/15/2015 1:36 PM, Joe Subich, W4TV wrote:
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>
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> On 9/15/2015 3:39 PM, Lynn W. Taylor, WB6UUT wrote:
>> Maybe I'm wrong, but if the thing we're testing is supposed to be a
>> radio, and we want to compare how radios work under conditions we'd
>> encounter in actual use, it just seems intuitively obvious to the most
>> casual observer that the tests should be the same.
>>
>> 73 -- Lynn
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> Therein lies the rub ... direct digital conversion SDR devices have
> their best performance (best sensitivity) at (composite) signal levels
> just below the clip (overflow) point of the ADC in use.

I agree with you.  What I'm saying isn't about why an SDR or an Analog 
receiver might have problems.

If we're testing receivers, we should treat them as a black box and not 
look into the ciruitry to see how they behave.

After the test, then we could look inside and say "oh, the ADC is the 
limiting factor."

73 -- Lynn