[Skimmertalk] Waterfall Sensitivity

[Bill Tippett]

I've been using a K3/LP-PAN combination with Skimmer for almost 2
years now.  My K3 has the IF OUT mod to decrease the internal transfer
loss and I also use the K3's PREamp for weak signals, both of which
should mean that Skimmer sees the full sensitivity of the K3.

This morning 5W0YA was on 160m with a very weak signal on a very quiet
band.  Even though I could copy his signal Q5 by ear, Skimmer was
detecting absolutely nothing of his signal...not even a faint trace.
I'm beginning to feel this is a limitation of Skimmer's software
rather than hardware and am wondering if anyone else has observed this
on extremely weak signals.  I have not yet tried a different waterfall
such as Spectran but that may be next.  I love Skimmer's interface to
the K3 but just wish it could detect weaker signals.

I have good hearing and am experienced in copying weak signals below
the noise floor, but wonder why Skimmer cannot detect these signals?

73,  Bill  W4ZV