[TenTec] New technology

Lee WA3FIY wa3fiy at radioadv.com
Thu Apr 10 12:31:26 EDT 2014


On 10 Apr 2014 at 8:10, Wade Staggs wrote: (in part)

> I actually had a Newly Minted General Class last night, tell me that I
> was 30 Hz. Low in Frequency. I WAS THE NET CONTROL! 30 Hz. my left
> elbow! Looked at my Net Preamble again and sure enough .... it does
> say on or about 3xxx KC. which causes more Grief when they ask what
> the heck Kilocycles is supposed to be!     

It's not just "newly minted Generals".  As a former net control for our section cw traffic net I 
often ran into old timers that apparently had no concept of "zero beat".  Our preamble 
included QNZ yet often stations several hundred hertz off frequency (the frequency of net 
control station..not published frequency :-) would attempt to check in.  In my case as NCS 
that was a problem as I am nearly deaf and could not even hear them.   

Sooo......... perhaps Ten Tec could include a simple automatic zero beat indicator for use in 
CW mode.  It's not hard...I made one for my own use since I cannot reliably get to zero beat 
without help.  The circuit is a PIC processor which reads the incoming audio and matches it 
to whatever CW offset one has programmed.  When within +/- 40 hz or so of ZB a led flashes 
following the dits and dahs.  When within +/- 25 hz or so the led brightens (and still flashes).  
I've been using this thing now for several years and it works well for me.  Very simple and 
automatic.

I think this would be a good teaching moment for TT also.  In the early days they had a 
section of the transceiver manual dedicated to teaching us about the differences between 
tube and solid state finals.  That was interesting and informative.  In this case they could 
teach us that net control (or the station calling CQ) sets the net frequency and the ZB 
indicator helps us to get on that frequency.  

Of course not everyone is nearly deaf so most don't need the indicator.  I do wish more folks 
would learn how to zero beat and do it though.   :-)    Not ranting.  Just pointing out that some 
of us need a little help as we age.   :-)

73,

-Lee-
WA3FIY


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