[TenTec] In praise of older technology

[Phil Sussman]

Hey Jon,

Once upon a time, nobody cared about a few hertz. Things were just
not that accurate and frankly, nobody cared.

But, I do see a parallel. In the past contesting was a paper and pen
(pencil) project. Then came the computer and any contact that you
made had to verified by comparison to your contact's log. Heaven
forbid your contact didn't bother to submit his log, because your
QSO would be disqualified and not only would your score be reduced,
but in addition a penalty (more points off) is imposed. I gave up
contesting because it has become an obsession to those at the 'top'.

Last time someone told me that I was off frequency, I replied, "THANKS"
Of course the refrain was "YOU'RE STILL OFF FREQUENCY".
Answer: "I KNOW, ONE DAY I'M GOING TO HAVE TO CHECK IN TO A CALIBRATION
NET."

73 de Phil -  N8PS

PS. Hope you enjoyed a little humor



Quoting k6jek <k6jek at comcast.net>:

> I certainly got everyone riled up with this one, didn't I?
>
> Just to be clear, these guys were not giving me grief but I still  
> don't like being the guy who is off frequency all the time even  
> though I often run old, old gear. The Corsair (I) is not a candidate  
> as a National Bureau of Standards reference.
>
> And yes, even modern stuff can be wrong and drift. I will say though  
> that my OMNI VII seems to be remarkably better than my Paragon II so  
> at least Ten-Tec seems to be serious about getting it on the money.
>
> For the hell of it, one of the guys built a GPS frequency standard  
> set up that he somehow feeds into his home brew transceivers. He's a  
> good one to use as in zero-beat to me. Once upon a time I understood  
> how this works but can't remember.
>
> It all gets more interesting when running old separates that drift  
> and don't transceive. The damned 100V drifts so much from cold  
> (unlike say Collins) that I just feed the final carrier signal to a  
> bench frequency counter. There is a nice test point on the 100V that  
> made it easy. If I hit "Carrier", its version of SPOT, I get a  
> readout which I'd venture is more accurate than your average monkey.  
> This is easier than zero beating every whip-snitch.
>
> And yes, I actually do believe being on frequency is better than being off.
>
> Sorry to push all those hot buttons.
>
> Jon
>
>
>
>
>
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