[TenTec] Stompin to the QSK

[n4lq]

How am I supposed to use a foot switch with my feet propped up on the 
desk? Bill must be one of those guys who can rub his stomach 
and pat his head at the same time. If I were slapping my bug and stomping 
my feet that fast, I might be diagnosed of having the St. Vitus dance. 

Steve N4LQ

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Tippett <btippett at alum.mit.edu>
To: tentec at contesting.com
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 07:32:24 -0400
Subject: [TenTec] The QSK of QSK

> K9YC wrote:
>  >
> On the other hand, Bill notes that while he does not use a mode on his
> radios called full QSK, he DOES listen often using his foot switch.
> 
> 
>          That's correct.  I first used QSK with the E.F. Johnson T-R
> Switch,
> 75A-4, HT-32 and Thunderbolt amp around 1960.  Since reactivating in
> 1976,
> my rigs since 1984 (TS-930S, FT-1000MP and Orion) have had full QSK. 
> Yet
> I chose not to use QSK in favor of PTT and a foot switch.  Why?  Partly
> because I did not have a QSK-capable amp for many of those years and
> partly because I never liked the idea of relays opening and closing for
> every CW element.  If Yuri were still here, he would say something very
> similar about potential reliability issues.
> 
>          I worked for HP in Colorado about 30 years and was General
> Manager
> of the division responsible for in-circuit board testers and data acq
> multiplexer products among others.  We used tons of reed relay switches
> in
> these products and did a lot of life-testing of components.  Let me
> just
> say that anything electro-mechanical (fans, relays, switches, etc)
> tends
> to be the most unreliable part of any electronic product.  I suppose a
> PIN-diode amp might be OK, but most current QSK amps (mine included)
> use
> vacuum relays.  I simply don't like the idea of those relays using up
> their finite number of lifetime cycles every time I send one dit.  Call
> it typical engineering conservatism or whatever, but that's really the
> primary reason I don't use QSK with an amplifier (meaning the "hear
> between the dits" type...not the PTT/foot switch type).  QSK is great
> for barefoot rag-chewing, but I never use it with my amplifier, and I
> typically use the amp when DX-ing and contesting.  Once learning to use
> a foot switch properly, it becomes second nature and you don't even
> think
> about it.  Hearing between the letters at slower speeds and between the
> words for higher speeds using PTT works well for most of what I do with
> my amplifier online.
> 
>          By the way, did any of you notice Heil now has a foot switch
> with 2
> outputs...one for the transceiver and one for the amp or whatever else
> you
> need to switch.
> 
> "The Heil Dual Footswitch is a unique product specifically designed for
> controlling TWO devices simultaneously. Two 10 amp micro-switches are 
> mounted so that the one feeding the RED lead turns on first and the
> BLACK 
> lead turns on last. A typical application would be to key a transceiver
> with the BLACK lead and an RF power amplifier with the RED lead. This 
> unique Heil footswitch eliminates any active interface problems between
> transceivers and RF amplifiers."
> 
> http://www.heilsound.com/FS-2-Dual-Footswitch.htm
> 
> I wonder why he did ths???  ;-)
> 
>                                                 73,  Bill  W4ZV
> 
> 
>                                                  73,  Bill  W4ZV  
> 
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