[Elecraft] Noise Blanker settings for Newbies

[Fred Jensen]

1.  It really helps if you put the particular Elecraft product you're 
writing about in the subject line.  From reading way down, it "appears" 
it's a K3.

2.  We moved last year from a rural location [38 years] and I have no 
electric fences around us now.  For the 38 years on "The Farm," I was 
surrounded by them, including ours.  If ever there was a noise source 
suited to complete extinction by the K3 NB, it's an electric fence, and 
the IF NB alone on mine totally removed all of them.  The pulses are 
short, generally NAR2-3 did it for me.  One of them had the old 
fashioned solonoid with the swinging core, and sometimes [in rain], it's 
pulses were long enough that NAR4 was necessary.  I never needed or used 
the DSP, and the IF NB has no discernable effect on the received signal.

3.  I have no idea what you're referring to with "NB light," my K3 does 
not have such a thing.  There is an indicator in the main display, "NB", 
which comes on when I turn NB on and goes off when I turn NB off.  It 
doesn't do anything when I transmit.

I'd suggest a read of the K3 manual first, then KE7X's excellent manual 
if you have it.  If you don't, I suggest you buy it, it's inexpensive 
and approaches the K3 [and other K-line products] from a different 
perspective that a User Manual.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the Cal QSO Party 1-2 Oct 2016
- www.cqp.org

On 5/15/2016 10:04 AM, Mike Smith VE9AA wrote:

> So it seems no matter which IF NB setting I have the rig on, the NB will
> invariably start to flash once I start transmitting.  Maybe I don't
> understand what I am doing (quite possible), so this is what I am doing.
> See if this sounds correct.
>
> I hear my neighbours electric fence driving me crazy, so I hold in the NB
> button.
>
> As I understand it, I can adjust either DSP NB and/or IF NB.  OK, if I leave
> IF alone and only choose DSP NB, I can run it through a range of DSP T-1, 2
> & 3, up to a max of T3-7 (which makes the audio sound all crunchy) using the
> VFO(a) knob.   I can get 'some' satisfaction from the DSP NB, but would like
> the option of using either/or.
>
> I can transmit as much as I want and the NB light never flashes (using the
> DSP NB).  No problem.
>
> Scenario 2.....hold the NB button in, now using the VFO (b) button (for the
> IF NB), I can choose NAR(7 choices),MED(1-7) & WIDE (also 1-7) .

>
> None of the IF choices really seem to do much against the electric fence
> noise except maybe WID3 one minute, then NAR4 the next. (yet the pulsing is
> exactly the same every pulse and other rigs (Icoms, Yaesu's deal with it
> easily)-the e-fence is a pop pop opo, never changing.
>
> What's even odder, is that once I transmit once or twice, the NB will then
> flash, and it seems to me the NB is no longer engaged - is that
> correct?....is the flashing a warning that you do not have the best
> selection or a warning that it's now disengaged?

> Is there a separate board for the NB, because it sure seems to me like it's
> not working as intended.

> To add insult to injury, my ol' IC-7410 right next to it pretty much
> eliminates the E-fence noise altogether w/o breaking a sweat. (I know I
> shouldn't use the word ICOM here (hi)

> and I just can't believe this Icom box would be better than a K3.everything
> I have ever read says the K3 should be superior in every way.

> I did all my testing on an extremely quiet 17m band, CW mode, 500Hz filter.
> No amount of varying the bandwidths, hi cut, locut, or an array of filter
> choices, modes or bands seems to have any affect on the NB flashing. (or
> it's poor effectiveness)