It's always a good idea to present the lowest-level of RF energy to the
receiver input. If you can hear the "band noise", any more gain at the RF is
wasted and can result in various issues with strong signals near or in the
passband. On the lower HF bands, the band noise is usually perfectly audible
with the ATTN on.
I find that the narrowest filter seldom improves copy on a weak CW signal
and sometimes makes it worse. The narrower the filter, the softer the attack
and decay of each CW element becomes. I only use tight filters to kill
nearby QRM that threatens to "swamp" the weak signal or when the signal is
so weak that I must suppress the background band noise to the greatest
degree possible. In those situations the other station may need to QRS for
good copy. Any other time I find it easiest to copy with a bandwidth of 500
or even 1000 Hz and, if only one station is nearby, use the notch filter to
remove that signal.
73,
Ron AC7AC
-----Original Message-----
Fred's configuration struck me as quite surprising. With DSP at
5-700, his K3 would be using the 1000 kHz roofing filter, so there
would be a substantial frequency range blocked only by the DSP. And
ATT on -- why would this be attractive? I'd think to hear weak
signals close together, you'd turn off ATT, turn up RF gain, and
squeeze down to a narrow roofing filter. Wouldn't that make the
signals sharper and more legible?
I wonder if this choice of operating settings is the reason not
everyone hears the mushy effect.
Peter W0LLN
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