[Elecraft] Analog vs. Digital Front Ends

[Alan]

Hi Al,

The Central Limit Theorem says that it doesn't matter what the 
distribution function is for each individual signal.  As long as there 
are a lot of them, the total has a Gaussian distribution.  In fact, it 
doesn't take very many to get quite close to Gaussian - something like 4 
to 6 is generally sufficient if they are roughly equal in amplitude and 
uncorrelated (different frequencies).

Alan N1AL


On 09/16/2015 02:26 PM, Al Lorona wrote:
> This is really good information, Alan, and makes sense. Regarding the
> approximation to Gaussian noise... given that most signals on a
> crowded band during a contest are highly compressed (their
> peak-to-average ratios are much smaller) would this make matters
> better or worse for the ADC, or no difference? I think I read that
> some signals during a contest have PAR's of 1 dB. Al  W6LX
>
>
>> As a rule of thumb the peak to RMS voltage ratio of Gaussian noise
>> is about 5 or 6, or 14-15.6 dB.
>