g0cgl пишет:
I said the same as Enzo on the release of 1.3 but my comments fell on stoney ground. The controls Enzo refers to, especially Threshold, allow AGC to action on signals and not band noise. EE response is that the loss of that control is irrelevant and is taken care of by the RF gain control (which they are going to rename as AGC level in ESDR3).
They are not the same thing, there are many reputable individuals and organisations that separate them out - Flex Radio and Sherwood Laboratories for example. But I think we are not going to get a well optimized receiver in ESDR3 because, according to the latest EE video on the subject, AGC is going to be further reduced in configurability with only FAST and SLOW allowed with no MID and, it appears from the video, no USER settings and certainly no return to the ability to tune AGC and response as found in ESDR2 1.2.
For those who either work weak signal CW DXing, especially on higher noise level bands, or those who wish to take advantage of the AGC Compensation feature of JTDX for help in maximising weak FT8 decodes, we are I think likely to feel disappointed. Time will tell though.
The crunch for me was when an Irish station worked a XX9 DXpedition on 160m CW that I could not hear even though I have an excellent receive antenna. I changed, in desperation, from 1.3 to 1.2, same settings except I set AGC Threshold and Slope, and there he was with just enough signal to work him. Back to 1.3 and gone again. It is all in the software, the Expert Electronics hardware is excellent.
Hi Erik, thank you very much for your comment.
I hope they are right and that the release 3 will address this issue. Anyway still remains the question about the drawbacks in leaving there the whole AGC settings.
While we are here I would like to ask a question strictly related to the RX of SunSDR Rigs and the difference between the Flexradio panadpter.
At one point, in the manual, talking about the weak signals operations, they say that zooming the panadapter in it can lower the noise floor (see the picture below). The tangible effect of this operation is that you can see the signal before you can ear it.
I experienced this nice feature with the VK0EK, seeing their signal before can listen to them, then taking them on 17m and 15m.
Now I am wondering if the EESDR works in the same way or its response is indipendent from the zoom ratio.
73' Enzo
iw7dmh