Topband: Which is best for copying the weakest DX - DSP or the ear-brain combo?

[Tom W8JI]

> I'd like to know whether it's ever been established that some very 
> talented
> hams can out-hear the best SDRs and/or DSP available. Can a skilled
> ear-brain combo (such as some highly-skilled and talented 160 meter
> contesters) beat state-of-the art digital signal processing when it comes
> to copying the very weakest of signals buried in the noise?

Excluding time-synchronized signal processing methods, I've never found any 
DSP system do better or do more than an analog system in signal 
readabilitly.

They are really just different methods of doing the same thing analog 
systems can do.

I actually find DSP detector systems inhibit my ability to "hear" or copy 
noise floor signals in rough noise. I'm not sure why that is, but it is more 
difficult for me to piece together a signal that is in the noise when it has 
been detected in a DSP system.

I normally set my K3's so DSP filtering is wider than the analog filter at 
filter switch in, so I can change the DSP bandwidth from wider than any 
analog filter down to the DSP being narrower, but I still think analog 
detection is much better for signals below the level of rough noise.

73 Tom