An excellent question Rich, since a lot of guys I work arent familiar
with the operation of their rigs (or are too lazy) to zero beat or even
get close for that matter.
"Zero Beat" - from the olden days, means to get on the same frequency as
the guy you are working. The older radios allowed the operator to do
this by injecting a little "spot" (or signal from your transmitter) and
the procedure was to move your TX frequency until the combination of
your "spot" and the received signal resulted in no flutter difference
between the frequencies of the combined two - hence No Beating sound
when both signals are superimposed. In the early days, and with the
Ten-Tec Triton series, this is done with the combination of frequencies
at or near zero Hz, however with newer radios, you simply match the
received signal frequency to that of your CW sidetone.
All rigs are different and depending on the alignment, setting the
received signal to match your CW sidetone still may not get them exactly
matched up. The only way to know for sure is to listen to both signals
on another receiver and match them up. Once you get the feel for how
your signal matches the RX signal and comparing to where that ends up
with regard to your CW sidetone, you will become a master at "zero
beating"!
Hope this helps, and like antenna tuning, I am sure there are a lot more
explanations available from the OT's on the list!
73,
--
Thomas M. Delker - K1KY CFO#395 - Smyrna / Gallatin / Short Mtn. TN
A.R.R.L. District Emergency Coordinator - Tennessee District #4
C.A.T.S. (W4CAT) - 147.30/145.23/145.49/145.17/223.98/444.45/444.65
Stones River A.R.C. (K4FUN) - http://www.members.home.com/srarc
Tennessee Contest Group (K4TCG) - http://www.k4ro.net/tcg.html
Fistfighters United Nashville (NT4L) 146.955 (114.8)
--
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