Compression taking place
Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2023 3:39 am
I have been enjoying use of PS for some time now and get unsolicited reports on how clean my signal looks like from people who have stations that truly "see" my signal. I always have DUP turned on when I am on the air. However, on just one band, it appears that my signal isn't as clean as I would like it to be. Of course, I also recall having read Scott mention that anything below - 70 is not to be worried about as that can't be seen by other stations. Now, are any of the things that I mention below some ways of perhaps improving the situation? What is written at "1." is helping, but I think I am missing something here.
Below, see screen capture of the Linearity form as it stands right now.
1. On 20 meters (antenna is a mono-band inverted V), the "Amp view" shows that I am running my SS amp into compression (observing the top right-hand corner of the plot in Amp view). The amp can easily deliver full-legal limit (NOT that I would do that though) so I am not sure why I am seeing this compression. On all the other bands that I operate on (40, 17, 15 and 10), the plot in Amp view looks pretty nice and "regular." Only on 20 do I observe a plot that clearly indicates compression. When I dial the exciting RF input to the amp back some, the Amp view changes to a more "normal" plot, very similar to those on other bands.
2. While re-reading some many threads on PS, I came across mention of the "TINT" parameter that I can see on the Linearity form. I don't think that I have ever changed that, but it reads 1.1. In one thread I got the idea that having 0.5 in the TINT box may work better, but again, I have no idea what TINT actually does so why 0.5 would work better or not isn't very clear to me.
3. Another thing that was mentioned in another thread was "Single Cal" that I may want to experiment with although I thought that this is a sort of "one-off" feature after which NO continuous auto-calibrating takes place until I hit "Single Cal" again", I am not sure if I got this right . In fact, I have NEVER used it. For PS, I use the 2 TON button to "auto-calibrate" for each band (I do that again when I bounce from one amp to another and/or if I build another antenna for a band) and not mess with PS after that.
4. I also read that one may want to play with the Max Gain of the Leveler (mine is set at 5dB) as increasing that number may help the CFC when using PS. I have also heard that increasing the Max Gain of the Leveler beyond 5dB wasn't a good idea (that discussion had nothing to do with PS if my memory serves). However, I have some compression applied even before the audio from the MIC even sees the ANAN so I am not sure if increasing the Leveler Max Gain would help. Or, perhaps, I reduce any pre-ANAN compression (I usually don't run a lot of compression) and make up for the reduced compression by increasing the Leveler Max Gain dB figure.....
5. ALC Comp is hitting 3dB (even 5dB) at times when I transmit. Would I do better to switch the meter to ALC Group and hit 3dB at times?
Any suggestions from more experienced users of PS would be welcome .
Juha
NI2M
Thetis v2.9.0.6 x64 Protocol 2 v2.1.18
P.S. I use a VST Host (a "stripped down" version of a full-blown DAW) for some of the audio processing, prior to feeding result into ANAN.
Below, see screen capture of the Linearity form as it stands right now.
1. On 20 meters (antenna is a mono-band inverted V), the "Amp view" shows that I am running my SS amp into compression (observing the top right-hand corner of the plot in Amp view). The amp can easily deliver full-legal limit (NOT that I would do that though) so I am not sure why I am seeing this compression. On all the other bands that I operate on (40, 17, 15 and 10), the plot in Amp view looks pretty nice and "regular." Only on 20 do I observe a plot that clearly indicates compression. When I dial the exciting RF input to the amp back some, the Amp view changes to a more "normal" plot, very similar to those on other bands.
2. While re-reading some many threads on PS, I came across mention of the "TINT" parameter that I can see on the Linearity form. I don't think that I have ever changed that, but it reads 1.1. In one thread I got the idea that having 0.5 in the TINT box may work better, but again, I have no idea what TINT actually does so why 0.5 would work better or not isn't very clear to me.
3. Another thing that was mentioned in another thread was "Single Cal" that I may want to experiment with although I thought that this is a sort of "one-off" feature after which NO continuous auto-calibrating takes place until I hit "Single Cal" again", I am not sure if I got this right . In fact, I have NEVER used it. For PS, I use the 2 TON button to "auto-calibrate" for each band (I do that again when I bounce from one amp to another and/or if I build another antenna for a band) and not mess with PS after that.
4. I also read that one may want to play with the Max Gain of the Leveler (mine is set at 5dB) as increasing that number may help the CFC when using PS. I have also heard that increasing the Max Gain of the Leveler beyond 5dB wasn't a good idea (that discussion had nothing to do with PS if my memory serves). However, I have some compression applied even before the audio from the MIC even sees the ANAN so I am not sure if increasing the Leveler Max Gain would help. Or, perhaps, I reduce any pre-ANAN compression (I usually don't run a lot of compression) and make up for the reduced compression by increasing the Leveler Max Gain dB figure.....
5. ALC Comp is hitting 3dB (even 5dB) at times when I transmit. Would I do better to switch the meter to ALC Group and hit 3dB at times?
Any suggestions from more experienced users of PS would be welcome .
Juha
NI2M
Thetis v2.9.0.6 x64 Protocol 2 v2.1.18
P.S. I use a VST Host (a "stripped down" version of a full-blown DAW) for some of the audio processing, prior to feeding result into ANAN.