Recently I took some 'jazzing' from some fellow Hams when they observed that in addition to a VHF transceiver, I also run either an AM/SSB CB or Export 10/11 meter rig in my mobiles. When they asked me WHY, I said: "Because MOST of the HF Amateur gear out there has noise blankers that are highly ineffective in the mobile environment." When they vehemently disagreed with me, I asked them: "Okay, here's you chance, which of YOUR mobile HF radios are completely effective in limiting and/or blanking noise in YOUR mobiles WITHOUT DISTORTION?" Dead silence...... and the look on their faces was priceless.
Now, don't get me wrong, I've run my fair share of mobile HF in over 25 states thus far. However, with virtually EVERY set up, the only way I was able to effectively deaden enough of my noise (and when I say "noise" I mean ignition, steel belted radial tire noise, traffic lights, neon lights from stores, etc.) was to run an outboard audio DSP unit into an external speaker (in my case, the old Amcomm Clear Speech DSP unit.
Of all of the HF mobile rigs I've run (4 different units), only 2 had effective noise blankers:
The FIRST was a Drake TR-7 with the NB module: too old/too big for today's compact cars.
The second was an old Alda 103 (20-40-80M analog dial) also with the optional NB module. (Not very freq. stable for mobile use.)
The two most recent mobile HF rigs were:
Alinco DX-70TH: noise blanker did NOTHING
Icom IC-706MkIIG: the internal audio DSP could only be turned up half way w/o adding rx audio distortion on SSB, and therefore was ineffective at significantly reducing received noise in the mobile environment, AND the NB was as equally ineffective as the Alinco. However, once the Clear Speech DSP unit was plugged in, it effectively eliminated over 90-95% of the noise WITHOUT the distortion of the internal DSP unit.
So my question is:
WHICH (if any) of the modern HF transceivers have NOISE BLANKERS that actually WORK as good or better than a modern CB/Export radio?
Now, don't get me wrong, I've run my fair share of mobile HF in over 25 states thus far. However, with virtually EVERY set up, the only way I was able to effectively deaden enough of my noise (and when I say "noise" I mean ignition, steel belted radial tire noise, traffic lights, neon lights from stores, etc.) was to run an outboard audio DSP unit into an external speaker (in my case, the old Amcomm Clear Speech DSP unit.
Of all of the HF mobile rigs I've run (4 different units), only 2 had effective noise blankers:
The FIRST was a Drake TR-7 with the NB module: too old/too big for today's compact cars.
The second was an old Alda 103 (20-40-80M analog dial) also with the optional NB module. (Not very freq. stable for mobile use.)
The two most recent mobile HF rigs were:
Alinco DX-70TH: noise blanker did NOTHING
Icom IC-706MkIIG: the internal audio DSP could only be turned up half way w/o adding rx audio distortion on SSB, and therefore was ineffective at significantly reducing received noise in the mobile environment, AND the NB was as equally ineffective as the Alinco. However, once the Clear Speech DSP unit was plugged in, it effectively eliminated over 90-95% of the noise WITHOUT the distortion of the internal DSP unit.
So my question is:
WHICH (if any) of the modern HF transceivers have NOISE BLANKERS that actually WORK as good or better than a modern CB/Export radio?
