TopBand: Maintenance...YES!

[Bill Tippett]

KM1H wrote:

>Bottom line....take criticism seriously from the real topband ops. 
>Wait at least 6 months to work on it. 
>Monitor your system carefully...be suspect of any new
>phenomenon...investigate.

Guys, this is really good advice for all of us.  The only comment
I have is please DON'T wait at least 6 months to work on it!  I've
heard numerous signals with very bad phase noise (often a TS-940S or 
an ICOM using a wide split), clicks (I can recognize a TR-7 by its
AWFUL clicks which are a designed-in fault by Drake), poor audio
on SSB, etc.  If it's someone I know well, I usually try to say
something tactfully, but if I don't know them, I usually just keep
my mouth shut.  That's really not the right answer.  160 is a very
small band and signals are very strong which emphasizes problems
that may not be obvious on other bands.  We all should periodically
monitor our own signals with another receiver just to see what our
signal sounds like.  If you can't do that, PLEASE DO take comments 
from other Topbanders seriously...most of us are fairly experienced
and will not say anything unless there truly is a serious problem.

That said, let's not debate this on the reflector.  Let's just each
resolve to make our own signal the cleanest on the band and to take
any comments received from others constructively.  Thanks to Carl
for sharing his comments.

73,  Bill  W4ZV 

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