John:
First congratulations on achieving WAS on 144, that was an operating
achievement then and now.
I suspect with a 13 year layoff that you might find that the modern DSP AND
the digital VFO's which permit consistent and uniform frequency steps to
allow you to "Pop" a signal off the edge of the filter so you can hear the
EME signal the first time to be the biggest change over the period.
Some 8 years ago I was doing some single yagi ground gain EME (over water)
with only 160W and I had several rx's to choose from. It is obscene, but
the multi mode Kenwood TR-751 was the choice of the day because it had the
precise 50Hz frequency steps and that was the trick of that day in that one
could roll a signal over the edge of a filter and get my ear to find it
after which I found I could hold onto the signal. I was using the first of
the real DSP Brick Wall filters, the shape factor was just great, and one
could really catch the signal between just one click of the tuning knob.
I suspect if your a creature of habit, which I am, you might find the new
filters somewhat "harsh" as we depended on the filter edges so very much
back in the 50's to the 80's. I have just returned to six meter Es after a
32 year layoff between QSO's. What I hear now is it is so much easier to
hear the band open by listening to the noise and every time Jupiter rises or
sets I hear the pulsing noise level change. I did not hear this easily
before (in the 1960's even though I had just as good a noise figure on 6
back then as now) and it took several days of listening to realize that I
really was hearing the Jupiter pulses. I attribute this to the better
filters of today.
Summary: I suspect the combination of the new DSP and frequency controls
that will be a significant change.
Larry
VA3LK
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