[ICOM] RE: Sherwood Engineering and DSP, 706

[Ron Hashiro]

>
> From: John Geiger <n5ten at yahoo.com>
> Reply-To: ICOM Reflector <icom at mailman.qth.net>
> To: icom at mailman.qth.net, kenwood at mailman.qth.net,yaesu at mailman.qth.net, 
> cq-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: [ICOM] Sherwood Engineering and DSP
> Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 18:38:14 -0700 (PDT)
>
> Sherwood Engineering just put up their Dayton 2007
> presentation on DSP and how it isn't everything it is
> cracked up to be.  See:
>
> http://www.sherweng.com/documents/Dayton2007w.pdf
Rob Sherwood in this writing, confirms what I had suspected. That the new
IF DSP-based radios are not that good.  I run an IC-706 MK II G, with 
the 1.9 Khz
SSB filter, plus the ClearSpeech audio DSP, and it's a mobiler's dream.

The 706 performs well in heavy pile-ups on the RX end.  However, if there is
someone in a mobile within a few hundred feet of me, he'll wipe out my
receiver, even on other bands.  Especially if he's on 20m, and I'm on 17 or
15m.  Can't be helped.

I do pick up all kinds of high impulse noise -- especially from sodium lamps
at the beach-side park at twilight.  Nasty noise on 40m and 20m.  I put
in the Clearspeech DSP, and it improves the audibility of many of the 
signals.
It removes perhaps 3 S signals worth of hash.  Makes long term
listening bearable, compared to without it.

I stopped by the Icom booth at Dayton on Sunday morning, around 9 am,
and the gentleman behind the counter tried to have me understand that the
DSP-based 7000 was better than the 706.  I'm sure the 7000 is a fantastic
radio (had another fellow ham upgrade recently from a 706 to a 7000),
but that the same time, the fellow with the 7000 noticed that the 706 with
the SSB filter and DSP was quite a performer.  Maybe Dayton/Icom
fellow was running his rig in a relatively impulse noise-free environment(?)

The gentleman at Dayton told me of problems with the ClearSpeech unit,
that he could hear a capacitive pumping in the audio.  We eventually
agreed that perhaps I had one of those units that works, and that he
heard a unit that was having production problems.  He told me that
if I put it on eBay, he's sure it'll be snapped up.  Right, like I'm going
to give up the baby that makes my 706 and 817 sing!

BTW, I picked up the ClearSpeech in Dayton I think it was 2003.
It was at the booth location where Tokyo Hi-Power was this year.
I picked up the SSB filter in 2004, and haven't looked back!
Hard crystal filters in the 706 (CW and SSB), plus a darn good
audio DSP (not like the Timewave rubbish), and that rig is unstoppable.
Kicks butt compared to the TS-50, FT-817 and FT-857.

Not sure how the new West Mountain Radio version will perform.

Dick, keep up the fine reflector!

Ron Hashiro, AH6RH
Honolulu, HI
http://ronhashiro.htohananet.com/am-radio/in-hawaii.html