[CQ-Contest] RX Heresy? - Key Clicks

[Bill Parry]

There are several popular radios that generate significant key clicks. I
know one of the major perpetrators was the FT1000.  I had one and am
embarrassed to say that I used it for several years in contests without
knowing it.  I still  remember W8JI making a comment about it to me.  There
was a fix and I got it done but Yaesu sold lots of these radios and many
have not been modified. The FT 1000 and its iterations are not the only
"clickers" though. This was a major improvement of the FT2000.

Bill W5VX 

-----Original Message-----
From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Dave - AB7E
Sent: Sunday, February 28, 2010 2:54 AM
To: w7why at verizon.net; CQ-Contest at contesting. com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] RX Heresy? - Key Clicks


Sorry, but I'm not going to feel bad about being able to slot into a
narrower window than someone else.  Where would you draw the line?  Lots of
folks don't even have a narrow filter, and lots of folks have rigs that
de-sense from strong signals 10-15 KHz away so badly that they have to stay
even further away from any of the big guns.  Besides, there are LOTS of
disparities in a contest that affect where you can successfully operate ...
raw signal strength being one of them.  Nobody cut me any slack (nor would I
expect them to) during all the years I was limited to wire antennas and
verticals.

The K3 isn't the only rig that can do that anyway ... the Orion II has been
on the market even longer.   I think the Flex SDR gear can do it also, and
apparently the new FT5K.

In any case, the solution to QRM during a contest isn't to trash up the
ether by intentionally making more QRM (i.e., a wider signal).

Dave   AB7E


------Original Mail------
From: "Tom Osborne" <w7why at verizon.net>
To: "CQ-Contest" <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:55:34 -0800
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] RX Heresy? - Key Clicks


You might be right on that.  Some others have mentioned the fact that you 
can 'get within 200 cycles' of another station and just keep on operating. 
What it that other station has a 400 or 500 cycle filter in HIS radio.  Is 
he supposed to just move and find another spot to operate?  May be quit 
contesting because his radio is now inadequate?

I noticed today during the NAQP on 20, I had  been on 14.119 for over an 
hour and all of a sudden someone showed up almost right on top of me and 
started CQ'ing.  He was loud, so I know he would have been able to hear me 
alright.  I was kind of wishing at the time I could have made my signal a 
lot wider!!  73
Tom W7WHY



> AB7E:

> I've had my K3 for about a year now, and for CW contests I typically use 
> the 250 Hz 8-pole roofing filter (which is actually something over 300 Hz 
> wide) and have the DSP set to 300 Hz.  Key clicks have now become my 
> biggest complaint ... I can slide up to within 200 Hz of an S9+20 signal 
> and never hear him if he has a clean signal, but key clicks are often much

> wider than that.  Given the number of truly horrible clicks coming from 
> some of the more active contesters out there, I'm of the opinion that many

> of them do it intentionally to give themselves more elbow room.  It makes 
> me wonder if that would prevent those guys from ever buying a K3, since 
> Elecraft has wisely (in my opinion) made the CW waveform fixed ... it 
> cannot be adjusted by the user.





_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest at contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest

_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest at contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest