[TenTec] cw settings

Duane A Calvin ac5aa at juno.com
Wed Nov 16 13:57:58 EST 2005


My comment was directed toward the FT-9000 ETR, not the Orion's.  The
waveforms shown there have very sharp edges.

        73, Duane


On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 10:04:26 -0700 "Bob Cunnings"
<cunnings at lectrosonics.com> writes:
> Ummm...
> 
> Looking at the QST review of the Orion at (ARRL members only):
> 
> http://www.arrl.org/members-only/prodrev/pdf/pr0401.pdf
> 
> you'll see the cw keying waveform for external keying, on a time 
> base of 10
> ms per division,  at 60 wpm. The rise time on the 2nd dit looks like 
> 2.5 to
> 3.0 ms or so. So if the default rise/fall time of 5 ms was selected 
> (they
> don't say, but a reasonable assumption?) then indeed the actual time 
> is off
> by roughly a factor of 2 like you say. This is interesting.
> 
> But in the same review they rave about the keying: "...the actual CW 
> signal
> is very clean. We got favorable reports on the air, with keying 
> sidebands
> falling away from the carrier frequency more rapidly than any other
> tranceiver we've tested." This agrees with my own experience using 
> external
> keying... when monitoring on another rig, I've never detected any 
> clicks now
> matter what the rise/fall time setting or keying speed. Reports, 
> usually
> unsolicited, are always very positive (using default setting of 5 
> ms
> (indicated), usually around 15 - 20 wpm). In fact, I've never seen 
> or heard
> a complaint anywhere about Orion key clicks, but maybe I'm out of 
> touch.
> 
> I can't reconcile these observations with the assertion that a rise 
> time of
> 3 ms will "guarantee bad clicks". Further, if you believe the Orion 
> manual,
> anyone using external keying is in a hopeless position. This is 
> because the
> range of allowable times for external keying is 3 to 5 ms, with the 
> default
> being 5 (2.5 ms actual if the indicated value is off by a factor of 
> 2).
> 
> As an aside, what's funny is that if you adjust it higher than 5 in 
> the CW
> menu the message "Max 40 wpm external keying" is displayed, yet one 
> can run
> the value all the way up to 10 anyway. Is it limiting the value to 5 
> when
> keying is external? If so why display the higher values as the knob 
> is
> turned? Or is the rise/fall time set as indicated, regardless of 
> what the
> manual says, with the warning message being only advisory? Without 
> a
> monitoring scope one can't really know what's going on.
> 
> Certainly, if this discrepancy between actual rise/fall time and 
> the
> rise/fall time indicated by the Orion user interface is real then 
> I'm
> surprised that it hasn't been corrected by now. But would Ten-Tec 
> really be
> shipping the product if the consequence was terrible key clicks at 
> the
> default setting?
> 
> Am I misunderstanding the QST review data? Is this really a problem? 
> 
> 
> Bob NW8L
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tentec-bounces at contesting.com 
> [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com]
> On Behalf Of Bill Tippett
> Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2005 3:36 PM
> To: tentec at contesting.com
> Subject: [TenTec] cw settings
> 
> Hi Ken,
> 
>  >I use rise at 3 and get excellent
> reports.  also have heard few TT's
> with too soft a keying.
> 
>          Ouch...those reports are certainly not from anyone close or 
> else
> you must have a very low ERP station.  3 ms would guarantee bad 
> clicks.  6
> ms is as low as I would ever go, even for QRQ CW.  Menu settings are 
> about
> twice what the actual rise/fall time is.  ARRL recommends about 4-5 
> ms which
> would equate roughly to a setting of 8-10 in Orion's menu.
> 
>          Glad you're in California!  :-)
> 
>                          73,  Bill  W4ZV
> 
> 
>    
> 
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Duane Calvin, AC5AA
Austin, Texas


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