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RE: [TenTec] Another reason for PTT CW

To: tentec@contesting.com
Subject: RE: [TenTec] Another reason for PTT CW
From: "Grant Youngman" <nq5t@comcast.net>
Reply-to: tentec@contesting.com
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 18:57:10 -0600
List-post: <mailto:tentec@contesting.com>
> 
> As a QSK convert (long before acquiring any T-T radio), it's hard to
> look back into darkness :-)

> Grant/NQ5T

> You are seeing things through your own crystal ball, 
> <long snip>  I hope this post
> helps the non-contesting operators understand why some operators 
want
> to do things a bit differently. 

Thanks for the description.  I don't think that's ever really been the issue -
- that the rest of are missing the point if we are not experienced contest 
operators, etc., running 2 radios, talking on the phone, making coffee, 
and blogging all at once :-)

We already know (or have been told) that the PTT business is baked in 
hardware.

There seem to be two distinct but related issues.  The one that seemed 
to reach the highest termperatures was primarily related to saving QSK 
relays in amps.  Several suggestions have been offered which I think deal 
with that variant of the issue effectively, and they're simple enough that 
extending them to complex control arrangements ought not be terribly 
difficult.

The second is the desire to mute the receiver, except possibly for 
sidetone (?),  during a CW transmission, with no significant delay at the 
turnover from Tx to Rx.  And I do appreciate that if you're trying to hunt 
for multipliers in one ear, and are hearing inter element or even inter 
character band noise in the other it could be distracting.  It may be that 
not everyone would find it so, but I can't walk and chew gum at the same 
time, and probably would.  By the same token, even sidetone with no 
noise could be distracting.  

This very issue (in a different context, obviously) was being discussed in 
an interview with an experimental neurologist on NPR this afternoon -- 
that as good as the brain seems at multi-tasking, it does not do it  
efficiently when the same neural region(s) is being used for concurrent 
tasks.

Something that is missing (for me) on most current production 
transceivers is an external RECEIVER MUTE connection -- separate 
from any PTT control.  This would add a lot of flexibility in a multi-box 
station setup.  There are times I'd like to use the Orion receiver -- as one 
example -- with a different transmitter, and be able to mute it 
automatically during transmit by some means other than just relay 
switching the speaker connection to an 8 ohm load.

If it isn't possible to separate PTT from CW keying, perhaps it's possible 
to include a receiver mute function that can be driven by an external 
gate/relay/whatever (??).  That might provide a way to skin both cats at 
once .. just a thought.

Grant/NQ5T




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