DSP Boxes

[foggie]

I have an MFJ 784B. It does everything as advertised. But I don't use it that mu
ch.
The filters are pretty sharp. It does make marginal stations come out of the mud
 on
CW. I don't find the SSB portion that useful. I have used the SSTV section. It w
ont
make a marginal picture any better, but it will make a fair signal pretty good. 
Filters out 99% of the noise then.

73,
Al - kk5zx

On 28-Jun-96 Lee Buller wrote:
>>Hi All...
>
>What are you guys using in the form of DSP out there.  Have yet to get me
>a DSP filter.  
>
>Any suggestions.  I like the Timewave stuff, just on looks...but would like
>to get some ideas as to what is being used.
>
>Thanks...
>Lee Buller
>k0wa at southwind.net

____________________________________________________________________________
E-Mail: foggie at dtx.net            | Snail-Mail: Allen Fogleson
Date: 06/24/96                    |             6121-A Nowak Court
                                  |             Fort Polk, La 71459
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>From dave at egh.com (David Clemons)  Sat Jun 29 00:14:20 1996
From: dave at egh.com (David Clemons) (David Clemons)
Date: Fri, 28 Jun 1996 19:14:20 -0400
Subject: Putting the fun back in contesting (long)
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9606281957.A1276-0100000 at newman.egh.com>

        A couple months ago there was a discussion on what it takes to be a
top-notch contester.  Quite a few of the top ops made some good suggestions,
not the least of which was "practice, practice, practice".  But what do you
do when there are long periods in which no contest interests you whatsoever?
For me, this period has often been from the beginning of May through the end
of September.  During that time period, I usually would rather spend my time
working in my very large (and ever increasing) perenniel flower garden, or
work on the constantly necessary home repairs.  But you can imagine what a 5
month layoff does to one's code speed.  So, every fall I would have to take
a crash course in W1AW practice sessions to get it back.  I sometimes
wondered how I could avoid this cycle.

        Also, I often wondered if I might like to try QRP operation.  In
the end, I never tried it because I didn't want to buy a QRP rig with a 
crummy receiver (my TS930s spoiled me) and I didn't want to go through the 
hassle of using an attenuator with the possiblity of stray RF running around 
my house.

        Well, after hearing a few good reports about the new QRP PLUS, I took
a chance and bought one.  I tried it out for a few QSOs and liked it.  So, I
decided to try it on the CQ WPX CW contest.  I had an absolutely great time!
It's been a long time since I've been excited about an average qso rate of
20 per hour, but doing it with 5 watts and breaking small pileups from time
to time certainly brought back some of that old excitement.  I had so much
fun that I set up a 1B-Battery station all by myself for this Field Day.  Now
that's a first!

        So, I would like to offer this as a possible way to break out of the
doldrums for those of you who have been in similar situations.  It also can
be a way to sharpen some of your contest operating skills.  For example, if
you've been using an amplifier and big antennas for awhile, you may have
gotten a little sloppy in zero beating stations.  I know this was something I
noticed when I switched from the high power category to the 100 watt category
awhile ago.  Again, with the new rig, I noticed that as fatigue was setting
in, I was becoming sloppy again.  What does QRP have to do with it?  Well,
don't plan on working anybody with 5 watts in a contest if you're very far
off his listening frequency.

        Last, but not least, my thoughts on this rig.  It cost $695.00 and
my opinion is that it's worth every penny.  It has QSK, RIT, XIT, adjustable
filters, and a built in keyer.  It is not overly sensitive to SWRs over 2:1,
although it would normally be good to avoid them with any rig.  There are
also memories (I don't remember how many) which I use to switch bands.
(There are no bandswitches.)  And, best of all, the receiver is not crummy.
I found that I could hear many weak stations (i.e., HZ1AB in the middle of
the night on 20, YB and JA over the pole just at dawn, etc.).  The only
complaint I have is that the AGC has problems with adjacent strong signals -
not an unusual situation in contests, of course.  However, there is a 20 db
attenuator which in almost all cases handled this problem.  Now, while I am
not normally interested in attenuators in contests, anybody who I can't hear
with the 20 db attenuator on with this receiver is not going to hear my 5
watts anyway.

        I will probably not become a hard core QRP contester like AA2U, but
I think that using this little rig in some of my less favorite contests will
have a positive effect on my serious contesting.  So, I offer it to the
general contest population as something from which some of the rest of you
may also benefit.

73, Dave Clemons


>From rlboyd at CapAccess.org (Rich L. Boyd)  Sat Jun 29 02:55:26 1996
From: rlboyd at CapAccess.org (Rich L. Boyd) (Rich L. Boyd)
Date: Fri, 28 Jun 1996 21:55:26 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: W8TK 1B FD
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91-FP.960628215433.11162G-100000 at cap1.capaccess.org>


Just noticed W8TK's absolutely super 1B FD score.  You guys whomped us 
good -- but then again I knew you would!  You guys really are amazing!

Rich Boyd KE3Q