>I don't understand why you guys need a "spot tone" to run CW, can't you
>hear the pitch of the station you are talking to? -Jeff- AA8VE
All quality CW rigs allow one to spot their transmitter frequency to a
received signal. This goes back to the days of separate transmitters and
receivers when the early stages of the transmitter could be turned on to
exactly "zero-beat" the transmitter frequency to a received signal in the
receiver.
The most common way (and best, in my opinion) to do this in a transceiver is
to inject a tone into the receiver equal to the transmit offset of the rig.
The vfo is then tuned to match the injected tone to the incoming signal. The
ability to do accurate spotting is not only important for getting exactly on
a station's frequency, it is also allows one to set their transmit frequency
offset from the received signal a desired amount. A QSO with both stations
on the same frequency uses minimum bandwidth, and accurate spotting centers
your signal in the other operator's passband, which is very important if he
is running a narrow filter and you want to be heard. The ability to offset
your transmitted frequency an exact amount is very important in other
situations.
I would never consider buying a transceiver that did not have an accurate
spotting function.
Best regards,
Larry AD6W.
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