Hi Andy. I would say the sound card qualities are very similar to receiver.
Noise floor Linearity Birdies and other noise I exclude timing issues, because they could most often be corrected for with software. Also I exclude stuff like bad drivers, that would cause dropouts. Now if you use narrow band receiver, you will be fine even with poor sound card, because noise floor will not be an issue. You will suffer sound card nonlinearity, if you try to receive panoramatic PSK31 with poor sound card. Noise floor may be an issue. High sound card noise floor will make SDR like SoftRock unusable, the receiver will be deaf, I have my personal experience. SDR puts biggest strain on your sound card. It sounds perverse to play with $15 SoftRock connected to $100 sound card and this is the reason why my SoftRock is stored in the basement as I did not have $100 to spare for the toy. Vojtech --- In digitalradio@yahoogroups.com, "obrienaj" <andrewob...@...> wrote: > > From what I have read in the past, there is a difference between inexpensive > sound cards and the high quality ones. I recall past articles that suggest > the high quality ones can result in some very weak signals being detectable > in a waterfall, whereas cheap cards may not reproduce the signal. However, > as most of us know, even the cheap sound cards effectively render the average > ham signals, even quite weak ones. > > So, aside from the higher end ones rendering weak signals on a waterfall > better, what are measurable difference between a poor cheap one and a really > good top-of-the-line one ? Can someone explain this is plain English? > > I am aware of the "calibration/timing" issue. Although that too does not > seem to make a huge difference with many digital modes. Of the numerous > digital modes I have tried over the years, PC-ALE and JT65A in WSJT have been > the most impacted by calibration issues. I have seen WSJT not decode at all > when timing of the soundcard is not correct. Do higher end sound card have > less problems with timing/calibration than cheap ones? > > Is calibration really an issue of concern IF an application can enable a > re-calibration process ? If an application enables re-calibration, does that > only "hold" for that application or can it correct the soundcard for other > applications. > > I raise these questions out of general interest, but also because of recent > WINMOR test where the poor performance has been blamed , in part, on cheap > sound cards or sound cards not dedicated to the application. I don't know > enough to argue the point, but my suspicion is that it is really not that > sound card related. > > Andy K3UK >
