WNB not working on my power line noise

Mike Barrett

I'm running a 6300 connected to a mag loop. WNB is doing very little to power line noise on 20 meters that the NB in 1.4.16 was able to remove completely. I reread the Noise Mitigation section of the manual and adjusted my AGC-T per Lee's videos but still no luck. With the WNB setting all the way to the right I get a very slight decrease in the noise but nothing nearly as good as the the NB in 1.4.16. After watching the pretty dramatic videos that others have posted, I feel like I must be missing something. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Gary Shriver

I noticed the same thing last night on 80 meters.  1.4.16 did a much better job.  Should I go back?  I went to open 1.4.16 and it showed the "UPDATE" tab that I did when I went to 1.5.  If I do decide to go back, will that mess anything up in the radio to run the "UPDATE" to go back to 1.4.16?

Mike Barrett

You shouldn't have an issue rolling back. When you click "Update" in 1.4.16 you'll get a box notifying you that you're downgrading. Click through it and the process should run without issue. I've been back and forth between 1.4.16 and 1.5 several times now. 

Bill W2PKY

I have noticed that I need to run the AGC-T at a lower setting than the knee, more like 30. After a lot of listening and testing I get better results by tuning to a spot with no stations, turning on the WNB and sliding the AGC-T to the left "slowly" until the noise is blanked out. I have opened multiple slices on the same frequency so as to see the difference in the dbm reading between the slice with the WNB active and the one without. Hope this helps.

Bill -VA3WTB

Bill, you got it, there is a sweet spot that you can find slowly and easy to miss.

Richard - N7HX

I don't really hear a difference when adjusting the WNB.  I do however notice a difference in noise level when using the NR.

Mike Barrett

Thanks Bill.  I gave this a try and all that happens is that the receive gets quieter as the AGC level is moved left. The power line noise is still very easy to hear and see in the panadapter.

Tim - W4TME

Then your noise is uncorrelated (aperiodic) and NR is the proper mitigation feature to use.

Bill W2PKY

Hello Mike- Since the blanker is software perhaps sending in a video with sound to FRS they can improve your situation. Lets hope the blanker performance gets better over time.

Bill W2PKY

Is there a reason that DIGU/L doesn't include NR?

Mike Barrett

Good idea, Bill. I'll get that done tomorrow. I'm shut down for the night due to thunderstorms in the area.

K6OZY

@Bill NR would impact your modem's ability to decode properly on more complex modes.  You could always try it on USB, making sure your TX/RX EQ and PROC is disabled.

Sylvain Paquette

I've not been able to get any conclusive effects of the new wnb. It worked once on a very wide band noise I sometime have on 160m but for my regular 80-40-20m noises the nb in 1.4.16 was more useful to me. Yesterday I've compared the NB on my icom ic-7100 to the flex on 1.5 to get rid of a 80m noise and the flex wasn't able to match the icom in noise removal like I was able to do with 1.4.16. I've played a lot with the agc, the wbn level and it's either way too complex to fine tune or it doesn't work properly on my setup.

Jerry Wilk

My Yaesu FT-2000D works better on noise reduction than the flex 6300 which does nothing on noise reduction.

Tim - W4TME

You noise is not well correlated which is what the WNB operates on.  We are looking into adding a slice level NB to SmartSDR in an upcoming version.

Ken - NM9P

It looks like that is going to be a good idea, Tim.  All noise is not created equal.  Apparently one great tool doesn't work on all noise sources.  I am having good luck on many, if not most, of my noise sources.  I like it!  But there are a few (I have many neighborhood sources) for which the older style on the 1500 worked more effectively.  Options are power.