Noise Reduction on a 3000?

Al Zaba

The NR function on my 3K is "****" at best - Am I doing something wrong - You would think in a SDR its NR would be superior - like my IC7700's - but it isn't.  Any help?

W1APZ

WX7Y

ALL of the FLEX radios from the 1500 to the 6700 have sub-standard  DSP NR / NB's you can play with the settings quite a bit and get something that seems to work on some noise until a strong station comes on and it is so full of distortion you have to turn the DSP off. 
Way back in the day of the being able to get PowerSDR updates from different builds daily the DSP worked quite well for a while but when people were complaining about the ALPHA software they closed this service down and lost a lot of the early development input from the users and in MY humble opinion working DSP filters. 

Anyway try these settings they may work for you better then the defaults I have used these in the past. 

PowerSDR settings after a new Database is loaded DSP settings Display Settings
NR ANF Buffers NB Refresh Rate 15
40 68 4096 20 Fill Panadapter off
30 50 2048 NB2
15 25 15


Origional DSP Settings 
NR ANF Buffers NB Refresh Rate 15
64 65 2048 20 Fill Panadapter off
8 16 2048 NB2
16 25 15


PowerSDR V2.7.2 Origional settings
NR ANF Buffer NB
40 68 2048 20
16 25 2048 NB2
30 69 15
10 1

Please don't get me wrong I love the FLEX line of Radios and I have had and still own a 3000, 5000, and a 6700 but this has been a short coming of the FLEX Radio Line and seems very LOW priority on the FIX list because SmartSDR DSP still sucks.

Just a note: compared to the Kenwood TS890 I am testing at my station which the DSP really shines, the FLEX DSP sucks and stays turned off 90% of the time and find it almost unusable.

73's

Bret
WX7Y

Mike KD2CJJ

Bret statements like yours is why I have not gone to flex...I absolutely love the dsp in my yaesu ftdx3k but would love everything else of the flex. I wish they would just make it as good as the next multi thousand dollar rig. I would buy in a heart beat.

Dave KD5FX

I've been collecting suggested NR settings for months. Here's some I've found that work pretty good. Adjust to suit your taste....
FLEX Suggested NR Settings

4/21/13 Flex email suggestions
Taps 64
Delay max
Start gain 10
Start leakage 1

4/23/13 Flex email suggestion
Taps 58, Delay 8, Gain 10, Leaks 1

73, Dave KD5FX

Al Zaba

Dave - thanks for your input - I'll give your settings a try.

73 de W1APZ


Al

Bill -VA3WTB

In most cases I find by setting the AGC-T correctly will do much the same thing as any of the filters. This setting is really the heart of the Flex. Try playing with it by turning it down, most the noise will vanish and you will still hear the signal you want to hear.

Kuby, N6JSX

The 3K PwrSDR DSP/ANF is THEE issue why I will not throw 'another' $2.5K at Flex to upgrade to a 6300. If Flex cannot/will-not fix this PwrSDR issue (due to ALL their focus manpower is on 6K's) then why should I trust they will fix these type of problems on the 6K line when they come out with a 7K line? I rarely do CW, so I want and EXPECT the best in SSB, so far Flex 3K PwrSDR is not it.

And ta-boot they have NOT revised the 3K manual since 2010, and will NOT commit to an update date (on a manual that is already THREE PwrSDR revisions behind)!!! 

I agree AGC-T has significant affect to DSP (and I've tried every possible settings possible) but ANF's are just audio attenuators that make it far harder to hear a clean clear signal. ANF is not a tuner-upper filter like all other brands. 

Al Zaba

Fiddling with AGC-T helped me the most - thanks for the input

73 de W1APZ


Al

Al Zaba

I just wanted to add that I followed  Bill B's advice in using AGC-T  and it worked MIRACLES - try it if you haven't discovered its use yet

W1APZ

Kuby, N6JSX

Usually, I set my AGC-T to between 67-74 to get the best DSP.
Small AGC-T change makes BIG differences.

Ken - NM9P

Once you find the correct "knee" in the AGC-T adjustment, the other DSP functions - NR, NB & ANF become more effective because they are not being overloaded with the noise.  Agreed, the DSP functions still need improvement, but so far both my 1500 and 6500 are hands down the best receivers I have ever owned.  But you do need to spend some time learning how to "drive" them.  There are some of controls and parameters, especially on the 1500/3000/5000 that don't operate quite the same way as they do on legacy radios.  Fine tuning the NB, ANF & NR parameters is an art, not an exact science.

My previous rig was a Kenwood TS-850SAT that I had modified the NB (which was useless before the Mod).  It had a great receiver, but both Flexes are more sensitive, have filtering an order of magnitude better, and they are much more quiet than the Kenwoods and Icoms I ran before.  Which means far less operator fatigue in a long operation shift.  

I can run my 6500 right next to the frequency of a fellow ham running a KW a few blocks away and I never know he is there, once I get far enough off his frequency that his transmitter phase noise isn't the limiting factor.

My 1500's receiver was astonishing for the price I paid.  While the receiver blocking IMD figure wasn't quite as high as the 850 (but darn close), in every other parameter that was important to me, the 1500 beat it.