I don't entirely understand how turning down RF gain doesn't diminish the ability to hear those weak signals. It seems like this would be counterproductive, but I dunno.

-David

On Fri, Jun 26, 2020 at 10:39 AM Ted Wood <ted@k4k.pw> wrote:
Ron is correct, the documentation does say to keep AGC off. I've found
that, in practice, this recommendation has some wiggle room. To be
clear, I'm not saying it's wrong, but there is at least one consequence
of turning off AGC that operators should be aware of.

I experimented for some time with both AGC off and on (fast, 0.1s) and
found that for my particular use case, having AGC on did not impact
performance in any negative way. Instead, it actually cleaned up many of
the local strong signals and had no perceptible impact on my ability to
receive weaker signals. I've provided an example of what a strong,
nearby, signal (+22) looks like with, first, AGC off (bottom three
signals) and then with it on (top two).

73
Ted
K4KPW

On 6/25/2020 11:34 PM, Ron Rogers wrote:
>  From the man himself.....
>
> "Perhaps it's worth mentioning that our advice for all WSJT-related
> programs has always been to disable the receiver AGC (if possible) and
> turn the RF gain control well down, thereby minimizing AGC action.
>   
> If you do this and follow instructions in the User Guide about setting the
> signal level coming into the sound card (or equivalent device), there's
> plenty of dynamic-range "headroom" still available for nearly all
> situations.
>
> The decoders know how to handle widely different signal levels, and they
> appreciate having a reliably constant baseline noise level during an Rx
> sequence."
>
> -- Joe, K1JT
>
> Ron
> WW8RR
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Fourlanders [mailto:fourlanders-bounces+ww8rr=charter.net@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jim Worsham
> Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2020 11:24 PM
> To: Kim
> Cc: Fourlanders
> Subject: Re: [Fourlanders] WSJT-X 2.2.2 GA Release
>
> Got a question for the FT8 knowledgeable on here. During the VHF contest a couple of weeks ago someone mentioned that you should turn AGC off on your RX. Any truth to that and why?
>
> 73
> Jim, W4KXY
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
>> On Jun 22, 2020, at 10:18 AM, Kim <whensley11@comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>> F.Y.I.  New release.
>>
>> 73, Kim
>>
>>> WSJT-X 2.2.2 is a bug-fix release, mainly to incorporate the new RAC
>>> section PE (Prince Edward Island) into the FT8/FT4/MSK144 Contest Mode
>>> messages for ARRL Field Day.  Several minor fixes and additions are
>>> described at the top of the Release Notes here:
>>> http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/Release_Notes.txt
>>> Upgrading from earlier versions of WSJT-X should be seamless.  There is
>>> no need to uninstall a previous version or move any files.
>>> Links to installation packages for Windows, Linux, and Macintosh are
>>> available here:
>>> http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html
>>> You can also download the packages from our SourceForge site:
>>> https://sourceforge.net/projects/wsjt/files/
>>> It may take a short time for the SourceForge site to be updated.
>>> WSJT-X is licensed under the terms of Version 3 of the GNU General
>>> Public License (GPL).  Development of this software is a cooperative
>>> project to which many amateur radio operators have contributed.  If you
>>> use our code, please have the courtesy to let us know about it.  If you
>>> find bugs or make improvements to the code, please report them to us in
>>> a timely fashion.  Follow instructions in the WSJT-X User Guide here:
>>> http://www.physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/wsjtx-doc/wsjtx-main-2.2.0.html#SUPPORT
>>> We hope you will enjoy using WSJT-X Version 2.2.2.
>>>      -- 73 from Joe, K1JT, Steve, K9AN, and Bill, G4WJS,
>>>              for the entire WSJT Development Group
>>> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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>>> -=-=-
>>> WSJT-X      Weak Signal Communication  . ©2001-2020 by Joe Taylor, K1JT.    References : https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/refs.html
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