Lee,
I can match tones audibly quite well to zero beat other stations with my
equipment. However I really do appreciate the little blue light that flashes on
my FT857d when I am on the right frequency. It just makes it faster and easier.
Best regards - Bry Carling
> On Apr 10, 2014, at 12:31 PM, "Lee WA3FIY" <wa3fiy@radioadv.com> wrote:
>
> On 10 Apr 2014 at 8:10, Wade Staggs wrote: (in part)
>
>> I actually had a Newly Minted General Class last night, tell me that I
>> was 30 Hz. Low in Frequency. I WAS THE NET CONTROL! 30 Hz. my left
>> elbow! Looked at my Net Preamble again and sure enough .... it does
>> say on or about 3xxx KC. which causes more Grief when they ask what
>> the heck Kilocycles is supposed to be!
>
> It's not just "newly minted Generals". As a former net control for our
> section cw traffic net I
> often ran into old timers that apparently had no concept of "zero beat". Our
> preamble
> included QNZ yet often stations several hundred hertz off frequency (the
> frequency of net
> control station..not published frequency :-) would attempt to check in. In
> my case as NCS
> that was a problem as I am nearly deaf and could not even hear them.
>
> Sooo......... perhaps Ten Tec could include a simple automatic zero beat
> indicator for use in
> CW mode. It's not hard...I made one for my own use since I cannot reliably
> get to zero beat
> without help. The circuit is a PIC processor which reads the incoming audio
> and matches it
> to whatever CW offset one has programmed. When within +/- 40 hz or so of ZB
> a led flashes
> following the dits and dahs. When within +/- 25 hz or so the led brightens
> (and still flashes).
> I've been using this thing now for several years and it works well for me.
> Very simple and
> automatic.
>
> I think this would be a good teaching moment for TT also. In the early days
> they had a
> section of the transceiver manual dedicated to teaching us about the
> differences between
> tube and solid state finals. That was interesting and informative. In this
> case they could
> teach us that net control (or the station calling CQ) sets the net frequency
> and the ZB
> indicator helps us to get on that frequency.
>
> Of course not everyone is nearly deaf so most don't need the indicator. I do
> wish more folks
> would learn how to zero beat and do it though. :-) Not ranting. Just
> pointing out that some
> of us need a little help as we age. :-)
>
> 73,
>
> -Lee-
> WA3FIY
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