I guess I'm missing something. According to the Handbook, key clicks are a
consequence of the rise and fall times of the transmitter's output, and
that the tailoring of these times is a design choice. If you optimize for
high speed CW in the presence of fading, it says, you employ faster rise
and fall times, generating more harmonics of the keying waveform.
On the other hand, W8JI says "Proper waveshape does not
guarantee proper bandwidth these days, since oscillators are
switched or moved to new frequencies at every dot and dash and
since synthesizers are being used."
So now I'm confused. If the output shows reasonable composite noise off
the carrier frequency, then clicks should be a function of the shape of the
RF envelope, shouldn't it? Is Tom saying that the clicks/keying waveform
harmonics are being developed at an earlier stage, and amplified along with
the desired signal, so that they appear even if the RF envelope's rise and
fall times are moderate?
73, Pete N4ZR
Contesting is!
The World Contest Station Database
is waiting for your input at
http://www.qsl.net/n4zr
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