W9GR DSP

[Ron Debry]

Because I was 15 single band, I only listened to 40 for a few
minutes on Saturday night.  It certainly is an interesting
experience - the sidebands of the broadcast stations are still
there, and the s-meter still hangs up around 10 over, but the
really obnoxious heterodyne is inaudible.  In general, I found
the notch filter mode to most useful.

As far as the noise reduction modes go, I think it would be most
useful for search and pounce, but not if you are in a single band
or multi-op situation where you really want to find every weak 
signal on the band.  You also run the risk of missing a station
that is off the side of your antenna.  For running, I'd only be
comfortable with it when there is a continual pileup of signals
well above the noise (and we all know how often _that_ happens).
I'm not sure how many QSOs I lost due to having the unit in-line
all Saturday morning, but I do know that my rates were very 
disappointing.

As an aside, when I did listen on 40 the band sounded fantastic -
crushing signals and very little atmospheric noise.  It was enough
to make me wish that I had gone all band, except that the main reason
I didn't was because the 40 rotor was broken.  I also enjoyed the
extra sleep I got as a single band entry, but I really missed the 
constant panicked feeling that I should be on some other band.

Ron DeBry WA6DGX
debry at sb.fsu.edu