Author Topic: Further "walling off" SSB noise  (Read 6103 times)

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KC9TNH

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Further "walling off" SSB noise
« on: September 02, 2012, 07:16:12 PM »
Just noticed I was using it today with some of the solar & wx stuff around the bands.  Sometimes on SSB, if I narrow the bandwidth with the rig to try and eliminate some side noise, it also attenuates the signal.  Most of the time I like the crackle & tolerate it, listening "wide" because
a) my ears are already making some of that (muzzle blast & signal-van HVAC units) and,
b) sometimes it's the only way to hear a station at all.

Many modern rigs have digitally-based filters (both CW and SSB).

My SSB filtering runs 3 steps 3.0 kHz wide, 2.4kHz and 1.8kHz.  Sometimes it doesn't help on weak stations because of the pitch of the trash. Sometimes, regardless of audio quality, it's more critical to just plain hear what's being said. This may not work for you, but you won't know till you try it.

Switch to CW, tune to the desired frequency and (for USB) ADD your configured CW offset ("sidetone"). The audio quality will be lousy, like someone talking thru a drainpipe. But the filters usually present in CW mode are much narrower than on SSB. Because most rigs are setup to run USB for CW, if you are trying to hear a signal on 40 or 75m, remember to switch back to LSB after switching to CW.  Then SUBTRACT your CW offset from the target frequency.

Sometimes you just have to do whatever it takes to actually copy the words coming out of someone's mouth. Ain't pretty but it might work.