I have read over the descriptions of what they do, and
not knowing the architecture, I can't relate the settings
to the problem I am seeing.
I'm an engineer, whacking at problems randomly is rarely
productive.
I agree, but I would not say that trying settings which other users have found to be effective, would necessarily be exactly "whacking at problems randomly". It could be worth a try.?
Did you read from page 58 to 63 of the operating manual, these 6 pages contain a comprehensive description of how the AGC works and also how the whole receiver is architected, the stages the audio goes through etc. It also explains the meaning and effect of all the parameters of the AGC configuration.?
?
When the AGC is exposed to nothing but strong signals,
like W1AW, it is by far the best I have ever used.?
OK at least this is good :-)??
?
When the AGC is exposed to high ambient noise outside of
the CW filter's bandwidth, the audio produces sounds that
simply cannot come out of a properly functioning CW filter.?
Sibilance and cracky sounds have high frequency components
out to the 9th harmonic and beyond.? They shouldn't be
coming out of a CW filter.
Yes and no. Firstly, I explained in the documentation that the AGC takes place AFTER the CW filter. In the steps I documented, the CW filter is at step 14 and the AGC takes place at step 19. Noise that is outside the CW filters bandwidth cannot effect the operation of the AGC.?
But if there is high ambient noise outside of the CW filter's?bandwidth, then there must also be noise inside the filter's bandwidth, there can't magically be a hole in the noise right at that point.?
However if the issue is that the action of the noise impulses causes a sudden action to be taken on the audio samples stream, an instant change in gain applied to the audio samples, then this instantaneous change (like any instantaneous thing) has high frequency components, which perhaps could explain the crackling you hear. Since the AGC processing occurs after the CW filtering, if anything happens too fast in the AGC and causes high frequency components, that would not be filtered out.?
I can test this here at my location also when I have a moment. I also have quite high noise.
?
They audio levels seem too low to have driven any of the
audio hardware into clipping.? Much higher levels haven't.
I understand, I agree I don't think it is clipping.?
?
I too am enthusiastic about this product, so I understand
the excitement it brings.
But, being reminded that I checked a box when I made my
purchase acknowledging this is a Beta release, as if that
makes my questions unreasonable, feels like something else.
Your questions are not unreasonable. Don't worry.??
?
I don't want to see your effort "knee-capped" by fixable
problems you don't know about.
I have heard this high frequency "crackling" too. With some settings of the AGC, and under high noise conditions. I suspect now that perhaps there is some immediate action being taken under impulse noise, which could be appearing as high frequency crackles because it is instantly applied; I could perhaps smooth it over the course of several samples to make it more gentle.?
I will look into this, I have put it on my list for investigation.?
