[CQ-Contest] Band edges?

[Dale L Martin]

Hi, Barry.

There are 'good guy' cards the OO's send out, too. (I received one once
citing my radio's good audio quality).

My understanding has always been that if your zero beat sidetone is 800 Hz,
then you had better be 800 Hz or more above the bottom of the band,
otherwise, your carrier will be out of band.

It's may not as much a matter of CW speed, although bandwidth of the signal
can be a factor in other modes, but what your carrier offset is and where
your carrier is when you transmit.  I recall hearing some discussion in the
early days of the PacketCluster about whether some radios display the actual
carrier frequency or the carrier freq + sidetone ("Hey! That TZ you reported
was 750 Hz off the freq you indicated!!")

Now, I may be completely wrong on this, but that's my understanding...too
many years operating QRP in contests doesn't lend itself to worrying much
about operating at the absolute bottom of the band...that's reserved for the
big boys who can sit and run stations all day!

Even a search of my 1995 Handbook and ARRL Operating Manual didn't turn up
any info on this subject.  There have been QST articles about it, though.

I'm looking forward to the responses that get posted.  It should be very
interestng and educational.

73,
dale, kg5u
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