[ICOM] Pro 3 noise reductiion

[Jeff Frank]

I'm having a hard time finding any use for the noise reduction control on my Pro 3.  It's not helpful to me under practically any conditions when I'm on cw and I'm not crazy about it's usefulness on ssb. One of the reasons I bought the Pro 3 was because the noise reduction was supposed to be improved over the Pro 2. The earliest product reviews on e-ham.net include reports on how much improved the NR is, and how happy people are with it. I never had a Pro 2 so I can't say anything about the comparison. Maybe I'm not using it correctly or maybe there's a problem with my rig. I find that unless a cw signal is relatively strong (s-5 or better) the NR control distorts the signal and makes it rough sounding and HARDER to copy. If the signal is weak, near the noise, using the NR distorts it into unreadability and I can copy it better without the NR. And if the signal is stronger, I don't need the noise reduction anyway. If I keep the NR setting below about 9:00, it does make a little positive difference but I don't feel overall it's doing very much. I don't operate much ssb, but when I have used it, it just seems to take the highs out of whatever noise there is, and I could do that with any decent audio filter. I would be very interested in hearing what other people's experience with the NR on the Pro 3 is so I can try and make an educated guess as to whether or not there is anything wrong with mine. If anyone is getting good results with theirs, please let me know what your settings are and under what kind of band conditions. And if anyone had the Pro 2 before the Pro 3 I'd sure like to hear how the Pro 3 NR is an improvement over the older model.  Thanks very much.

Jeff KX2P