I find the CW portion of 40 Mts total mayhem at the weekends and was wondering if the SCAF filter would narrow the band enough to make life more pleasant! I have a 50Hz filter fitted in my FT 817 but find the signals so close at times that they "ring"......
I know exactly what you mean. I'm fairly deaf and want to preserve what's left of my hearing by not listening to loud white noise and pileup mayhem. I use a 300Hz filter in the rig and a Datong FL3 in the audio line. I think the Datong is the best analogue outboard filter in the world but Datong don't make them any more. They sometimes pop up second hand on Ebay and at rally bring and buys. Prices £40 ~ £90, roughly. Even they will ring when closed down all the way to 100Hz but they are definitely worth having and they perform well on a number of modes. Demo including the Datong:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI2AcJCfOBoI've been impressed by the performance of outboard DSP speakers on ssb audio signals but they may disappoint on narrow band modes and they ARE pricey. Before parting with money on these, I'd take a magnifying glass to the specification: if it don't mention CW performance, don't buy!!
I've tried a scaf filter (Xiegu Technology) and it does a good job on rigs with no/wide internal filters but it doesn't make much of an improvement on a rig with 300Hz filters. Yes, it does make a difference, to a point. Go past that point and you start hearing slightly distracting filtration products.
I avoid pileups like the plague. Life is too short to spend hours trying to crack them. It has been said that the trick with pileups is to either be the first one in or to listen to it while doing a spot of construction: then when there's a lull in the action, pounce! (I put in the last sentence in response to another of your posts elsewhere.
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Vic /watching the daylight fade.....
