On Wed, 26 Jan 2005 16:09:34 -0800, "Caveat Lector"
wrote:

Military and Ham operators operate this way and claim a SUBJECTIVE increase
in signal to noise over that of a wide open receiver.

This has been true back when I taught it to my students in the Navy.

Technically this
should not be true, Signal to noise ratio should not be reduced by
decreasing receiver gain

Oh but it should. AGC will compress differences, thus lowering the
subjective ratio in comparison to a non-AGC perception. However, the
fluctuation of all signals will be wider. Myself, I've never been
afraid of automatic circuits, but often I find they are marginal to my
interests and for weak signal detection, I follow the conventions
you've offered.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC