[TowerTalk] static busters

[alsopb]

Jerry K0CQ, brought up an interesting topic of how to deal with static
crashes.

I can't talk much about SSB but for CW the following measures seem to
help here.

0) Forget speakers, use earphones.

1) Put in as much attenuation as you can.  This will keep the AGC
circuit from
going crazy.  If you don't have attenuation buttons turn down the RF
gain.
I've used as much as 30db of attenuation at times on 160M. 

2) Use the narrowest possible filters -- both IF and AF.  You may have
to diddle
with filter width combinations till you find one which is optimum.  I
find using the 
slope tuning controls on the TS850 in combination with the narrow
filters to be quite
useful in copying through the QRN.

3) On 160/80/40 Beverage antennas or other "low noise" antennas can
improve the S/N ratio.

4) Ask the other guy to QRS.

5) Position your directional antenna to reject as much noise as
possible but still
maintain a readable desired signal.

6) Listen to a low CW note. It makes a huge difference trying to copy
a 1KHz tone thought the noise versus a 500 Hz note.  I don't exactly
know why.  

7) Put the earphones on your neck instead of on your ears.  Sometimes
this does the trick.  Those old time CW ops who monitored the 500KHz
distress frequency found this to be an effective way to save ears but
still copy.

8) Pull the plug.

I don't claim ownership of any of these.  I learned them through
others.

73 de Brian/K3KO

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