I see reports that the Corsair II is noisy. It just has lots of gain but
the RF stage uses circuitry that should be very quiet. Practically quiet
enough for VHF/UHF without a significant preamp.
The band pass tuning of the Corsair II works very well, even with only
SSB filters it can be cranked down to really narrow for CW. I've hardly
ever felt a great need for the narrow filter (which I do have) except to
be able to set the pitch of the received signal where I want it at the
time. AGC is very good, but more calm on a good antenna with the RF gain
backed off. AGC is audio derived so doesn't rise quite as fast as if it
was IF derived and strong signals can make a leading edge click because
of the crystal filter delays.
On 75 with a good antenna I run mine with RF backed to about 3 PM on the
knob and the "attenuator" (RF gain knob pulled, actually no RF stage at
all) in the circuit. Works really fine. And isn't bothered by the strong
signals on adjacent frequencies that bothered my other brands of radio.
The filter response also is such that it passes lightning as clicks,
doesn't convert lightning to crashes (characteristic of most crystal and
mechanical filters) so it works on the low bands in the summertime very
well.
I'm not interested in any offers for my Corsair II.
73, Jerry, K0CQ
--
Entire content copyright Dr. Gerald N. Johnson. Reproduction by
permission only.
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