Don and All, Your last post raises a question in my mind--it probably has been discussed before, and if so, I missed it. I must admit that the number of posts on this reflector is often overwhelming, and I'm sure I get too quick with the delete key.
Here's the question--I bought the 6 khz filter, but not the 13 khz filter. I don't do AM, and probably won't do much, if any FM, but I suppose the possibility is there for a very small amount of FM on 10 meters perhaps. Anyway, I bought the 6 khz filter, primarily to accomodate any SW listening I might do. So, would I have been better off to buy the 13 khz filter instead of the 6 khz filter? That sounds like what you did. I assume I could just use the 13 khz filter for AM listening, and use the DSP to narrow things appropriately. I wouldn't have a 6 khz roofing filter, but would I really be at much of a disadvantage for the type of use I describe above? For some reason, I thought the 6 khz filter was mandatory for AM, but maybe I misread that (or misinterpreted what I think I read!). By the way, your discussion of how to set the RF gain makes a great deal of sense to me. It is, in fact, what I have been doing intuitively. My RF gain is almost always set at something like 12 o'clock or so--maybe a tad bit higher. My "excursion range" with the RF gain rarely goes beyond the 2 o'clock position, even on very weak signals. Beyond that all I seem to be doing is increasing the noise level with little or no improvement in the desired signal. I rarely use the preamp, and find that it more often than not degrades what I am trying to hear. Dave W7AQK ----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Wilhelm" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Cc: "Elecraft Discussion List" <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, January 11, 2010 10:10 PM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3: RF Gain, Squelch > Al, > > To look at it another way - look at the S-meter to observe the band > noise level, and then back off the RF gain until the S-meter is steady > at that same S-meter reading. Of course, this should be done at a spot > in the band where no signals are present. > > That is a quick way to determine the optimum setting for the RF Gain > consistent with the greatest receiver dynamic range and one does not > have to listen to the constant band noise clutter. > > The other option is to just run with "all knobs full right" and put up > with listening to the band noise when there are gaps in the signal level. > > Be aware that the AGC Threshold will also have a great effect on the > amount of band noise heard in the audio. If the Threshold is set too > low, the receiver will go into AGC action on only the band noise. I use > an AGC Threshold setting of 008 just for that reason (I know the default > is 005, but I think that is too low). > > 73, > Don W3FPR > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
