> Dave KB3MOW wrote: > When I'm going to run digital modes, I'd > simply select the "no mic" position so that room > audio doesn't get transmitted. > I don't see that as being sloppy at all. Hi Dave,
Sorry if I offended you by calling manual mic muting "sloppy station control". No personal offense intended :) But the term is rather descriptive, don't you agree? It harkens me back to the old days of AM or split transmitter/receiver manual switching, when ops often used a sequence of manual antenna change-over knife switch, receiver's mute switch, and transmitter keying to start and stop each transmission. Been there, done that (Novice) it was sloppy :) While there are a few hams who are computer-modes-only ops... most of us like to occasionally use whatever mode of operation happens to be interesting or needed at any particular time. What if one forgets to manually mute the microphone when going to PSK31? What if you have a visiting operator using your setup? Everyone listening on 14070 is going to get a good laugh when you are chatting on the phone with your paramour or listening to the local 2 meter repeater on your VHF rig in the background while sending your "brag file"? These days, with all the ham accessories available, automatic muting easy to do... either with store-bought rig control gizmos like Rigblaster, or homebrew relay/transistor switching interfaces. There is also an advantage in some ham radio operating modes and methods to having real automatic rapid switching between the computer and station microphone. For example: 1. for video operation on HF, the computer's signals are often interspersed with transmissions of voice SSB on the transceiver's micrphone 2. for digital voice operation using a computer as the digital voice source, the computer signals are often interspersed with SSB voice transmissions via the transceiver's microphone. 3. for ALE operation with SSB, it is very important to keep the microphone interactive and at the ready, so that voice SSB responses may be used rapidly when called or when monitoring. ALE calls can also be interspersed with SSB voice. Those are just a few common examples. Even if one never intends to use any of the 3 examples of rapid interactive operating modes I mentioned... The risk of a forgetful hasty response to a digital mode call leading to an unintended hot shack microphone over the air at full power, should be enough to scare most ops away from manual microphone muting. So... that's why I call it Sloppy Station Control. 73 Bonnie VR2/KQ6XA
