[CQ-Contest] copying zero beat stations

[Charles Harpole]

I have a 80% successful way of copying one signal out of several that are
zero beat.  It works on CW or ssb.

The FT-9000d has a continuously adjustable Bandwidth control and also
Bandpass Tuning control.  They are on one concentric dual action knob shaft.

With the BandWidth at 500 for CW and 2.10 for ssb, I can rotate the
BandPass Tuning knob thru its productive range and amazingly one otherwise
zero beat signal will pop up out of the others.  Sometimes I have to rotate
the whole range and other times, make only a slight change.  This works so
well and so often, it appears magic.  This action does introduce some time
delay in using it... turning the knob... but I no longer worry about time
efficiency to that deep level.

Sometimes, I can bring CW down to 400 or use 2.4 for ssb and either way,
the technique still works.  Personal experimentation will find your best
usage.

I found this working EU pileups off contests and simplex (not split) and it
works for contests, of course, too.

I can not get the same results from the IC-7800 partly because the BandPass
Tuning knobs have click detents (why?), but subjectively, it just does not
work as well.  The K3 may work, but the knobs are just too small and close
together for me to mess with.  The IC-706, with the 400 filter added, will
work this way about half the time, and much better on CW than ssb.  I loath
Skimmer-type automation, so this whole technique appeals to me.

I do not know why, electronically, this should work, but it does.  73,

-- 
Charly, HS0ZCW   and K4VUD