Re: [amsat-bb] New radio

[John W Lee <k6yk@xxxxxxxx>]

DE K6YK
I wonder if others have noticed this phenomenon?  The newer  rigs have
lots of bells and whistles, etc. but 
I can attest that some of these newer ones really don't perform as well
as some of the older ones, say of the last
20 years or so.  None of the newer ones I've tried out  seem to really
have a very good noise blanker for one thing. 
Another thing that's not so good is you don't have control over the AGC
on some of these new rigs, and that is not good
when you're working with real weak signals.  And the DSP seems to cause
some strange sounding output from the 
receiver, too.  You get used to it, but it sure is different than the
"old fashioned way". 

You might try backing off the  RF gain on that 910, Keith.   I use the
attenuator on the FT-847 so the signal gets down
to where it's not moving the meter when there's no signal. THen when the
signals come on, you can  HEAR them 
better.  That's the bottom line.   

Sometimes it takes a while to get used to a new rig, you have to try all
the buttons and tweek all the knobs so you 
can maximize what you can hear.  Took me a while on the IC-756.  At first
 I was griping about the receive on that rig, 
but I found a few things to tweek and make things better, now I'm
beginning to think it's the best rig I've ever had.
(except for the noise blanker which is fair but not great).

Working weak signal VHF and satellites  and  low band (160-80-40) seem to
be the real test of how a receiver works. 
Weak signals, noise, QRM from locals, etc. 

73,
John

On Wed, 17 Dec 2003 22:36:21 +0800 "Keith Bainbridge"
<vk6xh@arach.net.au> writes:
> I recently bought a new Icom IC 910H to use as my satellite radio, 
> it
> replaces a Yaesu FT 736R.
> Now the drama starts !
(snip)
   however on the FT 736R the noise level is  S2 and
> it increases to S6 with a signal that is infinately more strong 
> audio wise  than on the IC 910.
> Has anyone else compared a radio to the 910 at all. 
> 
----
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