[TenTec] The QSK of QSK

[Jim Brown]

On Mon, 16 Aug 2004 10:24:34 -0400, Dave Edwards wrote:

>Jim... You're biased!! Look at your rig list...
>Two Ten Tec amps, Two Ten Tec rigs..and a K2
>QSK Heaven!!

Biased?  If it's a bias, it's a bias based on experience. Since QSK is a 
MUST for me, I won't buy a rig that doesn't do acceptable QSK.  

But more to the point. When I started doing ham radio (in 1955), there were 
no transceivers. We had a transmitter connected to a transmitting antenna, 
and those hams who were richer also had a T/R relay to connect it to the 
receiver. I didn't -- my receiver was hooked to another piece of wire. In those 
days, a good CW operator wouldn't be caught dead not using QSK! 

The step up for me was to build an electronic T/R switch so I could use the 
same antenna for receiving, which was a tube whose grid looked at the 
antenna and drove the receiver. The tube was biased into cutoff by the 
presence of RF from the transmitter.  

In those days, when you were sending you heard clicks and various forms of 
receiver overload from your own transmitter, and we all grew into ham radio 
learning to deal with that. 

>I just picked up an FT897D rig last week at HRO.
>I gave it a try in QSK mode...
>Ain't gonna happen!
>That relay clicking away tells me NO QSK!
>(same with the 1000D for that matter!) 

What's the problem with a relay clicking away (as long as it doesn't fail)?  
Does that interfere with your ability to send?  Sounds like something that 
most folks can get used to with some practice.  FWIW, I use my FT100D on 
CW in the car in the QSK mode, and I'm quite happy with it. (I wish it had a 
better receiver, but I only paid $700 for it). In the car, there is so much noise 
that I've never heard a relay. And when we were at my remote mountaintop 
retreat last winter setting up our first antenna, we pulled my buddy's FT100D 
out of his car to see how they worked. I worked some nice DX with it, all full 
QSK. My Omni V is there now.  

I've always worked with cans (headphones) anyway -- it lets me separate 
signals from each other and from noise. When you're wearing cans you aren't 
going to hear a T/R relay. 

Jim Brown K9YC