[TenTec] new emissions rules

[ac5e at comcast.net]

Generally speaking, the key clicks and the general hash most of us call phase noise (It's actually a mix of phase noise, partition noise, shot noise, Johnson noise, artifacts of multiple mixing, and who knows what else, with phase noise usually predominating) is worse on 20 than 40; and given comparable antennas it's still worse on 15 and 10.

However, looking at some of the worst offenders spectrums it appears the higher ambient noise levels on the lower bands tends to cover up spurious emissions. That is certainly true here, where my FS meter says I have up to  105 microvolts of background noise on 160, 65 on 75, and 35 microvolts on 40 under dead band conditions. That's about three times the maximum background noise level I have at the farm. One of the reasons the new ham shack floor should be poured tomorrow - and one of the reasons my country total on the lower bands is abysmal. 

It would be nice if the new emissions rules cleaned up the racket. But I'm afraid only time and perhaps peer pressure will remove the offending transmitters. We certainly cannot expect the gummitup to do it for us. 

At any rate, the powers that be have taken note of the problem. If taking note turns out to be another case of laboring mightily to bring forth a mouse that will be regrettable. But we shall see and hope for the best. 

73  Pete Allen  AC5E
--
Never squat with your spurs on
>W4BQF sez:  I never really noticed key clicks much on 40m except
> on rare occasions. But I'm quickly finding a very different story on
> 20m...seems like about 80% of the CW signals on 20m are accompanied with
> clicks. Most descriptions of their rigs are the top two foreign brands.
>