On 8/30/2011 1:58 PM, Rsoifer@aol.com wrote:
> the eye is going to see CW signals that the ear cannot
> detect. This is especially true in the presence of QRM.
That's NOT the function of a spectrum display. Some of the ways I use my
P3 include:
1) Helping me figure out where the DX station is listening in a pileup
2) Helping me find a clear spot in a busy band (mostly during a contest,
but could be at any time a band is crowded).
3) Help me see activity on a "dead band" that isn't as dead as it
looks. For example, last Saturday evening I had the rig on 6M, with the
P3 set to look from 50.070 to 50.270. I'm looking for CW signals from
about 50.085 to 50.100, SSB signals above 50.125, and WSJT signals
around 50.260. Band seemed dead as a doornail, but then I noticed a
pretty good SSB signal that turned out to be a guy 200 miles away in a
grid that I needed (near Lake Tahoe) and that was ordinarily very hard
for me to work. I listened a while through a long QSO, then called and
made the contact. Without the P3, I would never have known the guy was
there unless I had been continuously tuning up and down looking for
action. You can do that for hours at a time, but I've got better things
to do. :)
4) Help be identify noise sources as being power line noise or generated
by electronic sources like battery chargers, switching power supplies,
etc. BIG difference in how we need to chase them down and get them fixed.
5) Allow me to document to another ham when his signal is much broader
than other signals by saving a scope trace and sending it to him.
Hopefully this can get him to take my complaint more seriously and fix
his crummy rig. :)
Yes, you can have lots of fun in ham radio without a spectrum display,
and I did for my first 55 years in ham radio. But I'm really glad I
bought my P3s.
73, Jim K9YC
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