Just took the opportunity to download two cells for an area I know well (Purbeck) - well, it is horrid. Complete waste of bandwidth for low/flat areas - the entire height field is filled with noise +/-2 to 5m spikes and pits on almost every other cell.
Remember SRTM ver 0, before they did any pre-processing - and how the areas near water were unusable... this is like that, but
everywhere (except where GDEM is unavailable and is void-filled with better data
)
I'll stick with SRTM v2 or CGIAR SRTM (v4), and other free/easy to use DEM sources such as Panorama GB, rather than jump through hoops to obtain... what?
Not sure what the mention of (USGS) SRTM v3 means - apparently it is higher quality, using defence inputs, but what that means for 'free to use' is anyone's guess.