[TenTec] Re: Orion rf gain and inherent noise

[Grant Youngman]

> does COLD help cut the noise down ?


Depends on where the noise is.  Cooling will affect thermal noise 
(kT) sources.  It will have no effect on quantization noise, which is a 
physical property of truncated Nyquist D/A conversion.  The D/A 
SNR is also affected by kT noise, clock jitter, and some other 
things.

Radio astronomers cool LNAs to VERY low temperatures (around 
20 Kelvin or about -425 deg F) to achieve very low noise 
temperatures.  A bit chilly compared to the typical home freezer :-)

In the HF range, I don't see a need to resort to the ice machine. 
Standard design techniques and modern components can get you 
NF performance much better than band noise will let you reasonably 
make use of.

Grant/NQ5T