Noise Blanker

radioshopbob

I am running the latest version (v4.1) and I am trying to find out where to adjust the gain of the Noise Blanker. When I click on the NB button within the SmartSDR program, it must just turn the Noise Blanker on. I don't see anywhere to adjust the gain or sensitivity of the Noise Blanker. I need help on this one… Thanks, Bob

KD0RC

Hi Bob, the NR, NB and ANF/APF adjustments have been removed, at least for now. Mike, VA3MW mentioned that the engineer took them off because the new methods have been set to optimal levels.

Mike-VA3MW

Thanks, we have collected all the comments on the sliders to passed them on to the engineering team.

John KB4DU

Another nobody asked for, just arbitrary change, kind like the profile autosave that took years to undo when it became user selectable which it should have been all along.

DavidR

After upgrading to V4 my noise blanker is completely non functional. It worked quite well when enabling it when running V3. With V4 NB does absolutely nothing. APF when eneabled seems to have virtually no affect either. It was quite effective with V3.

DavidR

Upon further investigation. . . with V4 installed, I have used the API to enable/control the NB and APF levels. The noise blanker in V3, which worked quite well on my saw tooth AC power line noise problem (a blown lightning arrestor) is now totally ineffective with V4 noise blanker. I am listening to the noise in AM mode which clearly shows whether or not the noise blanker is working and how well.
Dave, W0FLS

Ken Thompson

I have to agree with you. The NB button does nothing.!!

Noise that previously would have been removed stays the same.

The NR and ANF seem to work fine.

Cheers

Ken VK6AKT

Mike-VA3MW

Ken, can you provide a sample of the noise you are trying to blank? Personally speaking over a 1/2 century of hamming, I have found every vendors noise blanker to focus on a different type of noise.

Your noise would be helpful.

Ken Thompson

Hi Mike I cannot see how a sample would help, as you would know every situation is different.

What we all know is a noise blanker should be able to suppress impulse noise spikes and the last version was doing that well. The latest V4 does not work at all.

As others have said at least bring back the slider for threshold adjustment.

Cheers Ken

VE6WZ

The NB does NOT work at all on the 6600. With v3 it completely eliminated my nearby horse fence ticking. Now, it does nothing whether on or off. It is broken.

HOWEVER, on my 8600 it DOES work, just as well as before, so obviously there is a software glitch. Clearly there was zero field testing done.

I did submit a service ticket, but there has been ZERO response!

SmartSDR+ is a bust and waste of money for me!

steve Ve6wz

Mike-VA3MW

Steve

We have been a bit slow on tickets due to illness. But, if you got a ticket logged then engineering is aware of it.

Thanks for taking the time to do that.

Mike

radioshopbob

I have the same issue with my 6400M and 6600M. They took the ability to adjust anything as far as noise mitigation is concerned. We need it back FLEX radio support team. You can upgrade and make changes all you want, but please don't take things away the we already had. This is a good way to loose your old customer base. Harley Davidson tried changing there line up of motorcycles and they failed big time.

Geoff AB6BT

Do you know how many variables were used in the previous NB? Do you know what parameter the slider changed? I'm speculating that there was only one parameter that was changed by the slider.

Do you know how many variables are used in the current NB? If there is more than one, what should the slider change? Say there are four variables that are inputs to the NB algorithm. What do you change with the slider?

Just wondering…

K5XH

My two cents….

Radio: 6600

We have a local net on 75 meters each week. I have a raspy noise that NB would normally help with when using v3. I see no improvement with v4. Adjusting the slider on the AGC-T function also seems to do nothing now. Before I could run it up to about 95+ and it would drop the noise a bit. What I see now is a 5db DECREASE in the noise floor when I turn AGC-T OFF! Definitely not the way it worked in v3.

Flex, for us poor 6600 users, please put the NB, NR, and AGC-T functions back at least as good as they were is v3.

73, Mark K5XH

radioshopbob

Like I have mentioned to FLEX RADIO company, go ahead and make improvements and changes to make these radio perform better than the competition, but DO NOT take things away that we used to use and had.

Geoff AB6BT

radioshopbob…you never answered my questions from my previous post.

I really believe this is at the core of the change. I have no inside info but it is a valid consideration.