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Re: [CQ-Contest] Key Clicks

To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Key Clicks
From: Jim Brown <k9yc@audiosystemsgroup.com>
Reply-to: k9yc@arrl.net
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2020 10:47:52 -0700
List-post: <mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
On 6/4/2020 9:05 PM, Igor Sokolov wrote:
It must be conveyed to participants in contests that 6 ms is the minimum.

The slides for this talk by K6XX and me to NCCC includes a series of waterfalls and spectra from a neighbor's ICOM rig as the setting is varied from 2-10 msec.

http://k9yc.com/K6XXAmpTalk.pdf

On 6/4/2020 7:32 PM, Joe wrote:
> What do Key clicks look like in these new rigs waterfalls?
>
> Maybe take screen shots?

I posted links yesterday.

http://k9yc.com/P3_Spectrum_Measurements.pdf

On 6/5/2020 7:12 AM, Kimo Chun wrote:
> I'm fairly sure all FT1000mp's (original) manufactured up to middle to late
> 2004 have this problem (per Inrad).

The defect in Yaesu radios persisted through at least three model upgrades.

We were reminded of this, recently,
> when one of our spare radios at the M/M was reported to be doing this. We
> had failed to ensure all the radios had been modified years ago.

Neighbor K6XX encountered this when he bought a used MP and used it in a contest. We had a conversation the next day, and he modified it. Months earlier, soon after I had moved in 3-4 miles down the road from him, he called me about clicks. In a few minutes, we tracked it down to a noise cancelling unit, in which the carrier detection circuit was causing the clicks.

On 6/5/2020 8:22 AM, robert wa1fcn wrote:
> Other than sending radio out for a modification, does anyone know menu
> settings for a FT 1000mp Mark 5
>
>              that can help or at least lesson  key clicks ?

No, there are no menu settings in those radios that can fix their clicks. The hardware mod from Inrad or using W8JI's advice is required.

On 6/5/2020 5:51 AM, S57AD wrote:
> Occasionally I warned some guys the have bad clicks. In most cases they
> retort "I use first class radio, the fault is on your receiver." So I garee
> radios (especially first class ones9 should be addresses for having bad
> clicks.

Point them to these links, which clearly show the problem.

http://k9yc.com/TXNoise.pdf
http://k9yc.com/K6XXAmpTalk.pdf
http://k9yc.com/P3_Spectrum_Measurements.pdf

I had the same problem with a different neighbor, a lawyer with no technical background, who went legalistic on me. He had an Icom 7600 that was burning 10-15 kHz of whatever band he was using. He said the rig passed FCC type-acceptance limits, and he was going to use it. (He failed to read the next paragraph that said a signal could occupy no more than the minimum bandwidth required for the communications type being employed.) 5 years later he bought a K3S, and maybe also a Flex 6000-series rig, so his signal is now clean.

When the K3 came out in 2008, my neighbor W6DRX (about 700m distant) and I both bought them to replace existing rigs because, as engineers, we knew it was the only way that we could co-exist. I was running a pair of (fixed) MPs at the time.

When I was growing up, we were taught that with rights we also had responsibilities. In ham radio, we are licensed for high power and can build big stations. With that comes the responsibility to transmit a clean signal that burns no more bandwidth than required.

73, Jim K9YC
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