David,

The KAF2 is mainly for CW use. It provides a great peaking filter at the frequency that you have set it to (presumably your sidetone pitch). It also has a low pass filter that is in-circuit at all times. That can reduce band noise hiss for all modes.

The KDSP2 also provides filtering for CW, SSB and data modes. If you are bothered by signals nearby in frequency, the straight-sided filters of the KDSP2 will be an advantage.

The KDSP2 also provides noise reduction algorithms, although turning on NR in any transceiver can introduce distortion for voice signals. How bad that is will be determined by the aggressiveness of the algorithms. The KDSP2 does allow a wide range of settings, and you may have to experiment with those setting if the defaults do not satisfactorily handle your particular noise situation.

So, not directly answering your question, the KDSP2 can provide filtering as good as the KAF2 (even better), but if the operator is CW oriented, the additional cost of the KDSP2 option may not provide the improvement expected - for SSB operation, there is no choice, the KAF2 is not useful on SSB (other than the Low Pass Filter) and the KDSP2 is the only real choice between the two.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 11/4/2015 6:44 PM, David Inger wrote:
A friend has a fairly recent K2 with the KAF2 audio filter option.  He asked
me to remove the KAF2, build the KDSP2 board and install it in his K2.  This
got me to thinking:  I also have a K2 wiht the KAF2 installed.  My friend
works mainly SSB; I work main CW and digital modes.  Is the DSP board a
significant improvement over the bare K2 or even with the KAF2 installed
(which seems to be tailored for CW reception)?  In general, radios  that I
have owned with AF DSP have been pretty much a disappointment.  So is the
KDSP2 a worthwhile and cost-effective upgrade?

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