[TenTec] Dirty Transmitters - Flex and Yaesu

[Kim Elmore]

I'm not sure I understand the point of this. True "state of the art" can 
become hideously expensive. Somewhere, there has to be some give.

Yes, some of the current and many of the past transmitters are absolute 
dogs. But, they weren't state of the art even in their day. With SDR we 
can introduce predistortion for SSB to minimize IMD. Phase noise has 
been a bane since PLLs were introduced. I suppose that "state of the 
art" signal purity could be crystals. If the rules are interpreted that 
way (unlikely), we couldn't use any variable frequency source until its 
spectrum was as pure as a good crystal oscillator. As for CW BW, that's 
been understood for quite a while and ways to deal with it have been 
around a long time. Technically, any transmitter that has a broad CW BW 
is in violation and subject to sanction.  The list goes on for a while, 
e.g., RTTY BW.

I don't believe that the FCC ever intended to enforce true 
"state-of-the-art" because very few can afford it. How much flexibility 
should be allowed is a better question and that is inevitably converted 
to a number somewhere by someone. Literal "state-of-the-art" is 
unattainable by most.

Kim N5OP

On 12/9/2015 7:19 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
> On Wed,12/9/2015 4:34 PM, terry foskey via TenTec wrote:
>>   Jim,I am in engineering, questioning why and developing designs, 
>> it's what I do. I have commercial and Amateur licenses. The rule you 
>> provide for Ham operations is true, however, the passage can be 
>> interpreted many ways and I stand my statement there is no specific 
>> rule being violated.
>
> It is, but you're looking for a number. The rule is written so that 
> the "number" is dictated by the state of the art. It allows the Rules 
> to progress with developments in ham radio manufacturing. I serve on 
> an international standards committee, and we have written Standards in 
> exactly that way, and for that exact reason.
>
> Elecraft has set the state of the art with an expensive rig, Kenwood 
> has further defined it with a moderately priced rig. I would thus 
> define what Kenwood has done as "the state of the art" for the masses.

-- 

Kim Elmore, Ph.D. (Adj. Assoc. Prof., OU School of Meteorology, CCM, PP 
SEL/MEL/Glider, N5OP, 2nd Class Radiotelegraph, GROL)

/"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in 
practice, there is." //– Attributed to many people; it’s so true that it 
doesn’t matter who said it./