My K2 is equipped with the KDSP2. I enjoy casual contesting, but have only modest CW copying skills. In order to participate in contests between digital events, I have tried making search and pounce contacts in CW contests using MixW decoding as an aid.
Using the KDSP2 set with a Beta of 95 and a Decay of 30 has helped me to to copy fast contest CW using MixW 2.16 well enough to participate. I have found that MixW can copy fast contest keyboard keyed code reasonably well with the denoiser on. With the DSP off, the background hiss severely degrades the S/N ratio and copy for strong to moderate strength signals making CW MixW contest participation impractical using my K2 and small low antennas.
CW MixW copy is poor when signals are weak, even if the CW tone is clear enough for easy manual copy. Narrowing crystal or DSP audio filters has not increased the S/N ratio enough to improve MixW copy of weak signals for me, but will eliminate annoying nearby signals.
Turning off the K2 AGC and controlling audio volume using RF gain has allowed me to copy some of the stronger weak signals. I always use the KDSP2 for CW.
MixW with KDSP2 denoiser on has also enabled me to make CW DX QSOs.
My K2 has the original narrow 2.2K OPT1 Filter. I do not use the DSP denoiser with SSB phone reception unless the background noise is annoying. I have found that the KDSP2 denoiser in my rig reduces background hiss and QRM when listening to SSB phone, but can also introduce an unpleasant watery element to the voice sound quality. For me, the best SSB phone copy with DSP noise reduction on has been obtained using a Beta of 95 and a decay of 07 where hiss and QRM is significantly reduced with only a minor distortion of voice sound quality.
I have never used a KAF2 and can make no comparison.
HTH de KB1IKD
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