[TenTec] QSK of QSK and QSK definition

[Ken Brown]

The meaning of QSK as stated in the 1988 ARRL Handbook is:

"Can you hear me between your signals and if so can I break in on your 
transmission? I can hear you between my signals; break in on my 
transmission."

It does not say between dits and dahs of a character. It does not say 
between letters. It does not say between words. It just says "between my 
signals".

It does not say my rig does it automatically. It says nothing about 
whether there is a horrendous relay racket in my shack, and I am using 
headphones that fully cover my ears. It does not say whether you are 
using a foot switch. It does not say you are using a separate TX and RX 
antenna. It does not say whether you have a separate receive site miles 
away and you are running full duplex.

It does not specifiy the TX to RX switching time. It just says "between 
my signals".

So I would say that Bill's foot switch method is a form of QSK. I would 
also say the what people have been calling "semi-breakin" is also QSK.

Ten-Tec has earned a reputation for building rigs that do QSK better 
than most others. By better I mean you can hear a greater percentage of 
the time between dits and dahs, without degraded TX quality. That is to 
say that the greater percentage of receiving time does not come at the 
expense of having the transmitted dits and dahs significantly shortened, 
or their timing messed up. Or QSK without QSD.

I don't own a Orion, nor have I had the opportunity to try one. So I 
will not comment on whether it lives up to the reputation for great QSK 
that Ten-Tec has earned with many of their other rigs.

I would also say that someone who transmits their callsign more than 
once in a DX pile up, without listening at least between each word 
(callsign in this case) is not using the best judgement, nor using the 
best practice for making operating enjoyable for the maximum number of 
hams in the pile up.

DE N6KB

>
>
> You don't need to "hear between the dits" to do this.  I've used
> foot switches exclusively for both CW and SSB many years in both
> contests and low band DX-ing.  I've learned to simply let up my foot  
> between CW letters while sending my call in low band pileups (since
> effective DX-ing speeds are fairly low 18-25 WPM on 80/160).  If
> speeds are faster, I may do it between words (i.e. my callsigns).
> PTT does not mean that you only engage it at the beginning and end
> of an entire calling sequence.  It is very easy to make/break
> between words or phrases on SSB and between characters or words on
> CW (depending on the speed).
>
>  
>