Interesting comments. In the late 1960’s the late Harvey Hetland (WA6KZI/N6MM) told me exactly the same thing: a lower tone was better for copying CW. For a long time I was at 450-500, now that I am in my 70’s I am down around 400-420. I guess Harvey was right way back then.
Kim - K7IM Sent from my iPad > On Mar 15, 2021, at 07:47, KE8G <ke8g....@gmail.com> wrote: > > Yes, I agree! > > I had brought up the same subject in the CWops Group a while back and found > the same thing. When I started out in ham radio 40+ years ago, my CW > sidetone was around 700-750 Hz, a very nice sweet spot. As I grew older, > the sidetone frequency has been decreasing. Now at 70 years old, I am at > 420 Hz and that's the new sweet spot. > > I did an unscientific study by operating the Wednesday CWTs at different > sidetone frequencies, just to see if there was a difference. Believe me, > there was! As I increased the frequency, my effectiveness of hearing the > CW signals and separating them decreased. I finally stopped at 700 Hz, as > I was convinced that my hearing had changed and the lower frequency was > definitely better for my ears. > > 73 de Jim - KE8G > >> On Sun, Mar 14, 2021 at 7:13 PM Chris R. NW6V <chrisr...@gmail.com> wrote: >> On Sat, Mar 13, 2021 at 5:45 PM Jim Brown <j...@audiosystemsgroup.com> >> wrote: >>> On 3/13/2021 10:48 AM, Sverre Holm (LA3ZA) wrote: >>>> A CW sidetone pitch of 400 Hz is consistent with what little research >>> there >>>> is on this. A paper from 1992 says that "/All subjects improved their >>>> recognition as the frequency was lowered to 500 Hz, some even at 250 >> Hz. >>> As a retired designer of large sound systems, I had to learn a lot about >>> acoustics and psychoacoustics (the science of how humans' ear/brain >>> interprets what we hear). That science tells us that, like most of our >>> senses, hearing is logarithmic both with respect to frequency and >>> loudness. This means that our discrimination of one frequency as >>> compared to another increases with decreasing frequency. That is, we are >>> better able to separate signals from each other with RX pitch set to >>> lower frequencies. >>> 73, Jim K9YC >> Exactly right. >> I have screaming-loud tinnitus at 1700hz - which is louder than >> conversation, and rises and falls in pitch and volume with every >> heartbeat... Fun, fun. >> Changing sidetone from 800 to 400 made a HUGE difference in my ability to >> copy through the chaos. I did so after reading an article 2 or 3 years ago >> - perhaps those referenced, but I thought it was done by the USAF for >> intercept operators in the late 60's - I may be mistaken. >> ut for those who might not get the implications of what Jim said: our >> perceptions depend less on absolute values than on the difference between >> two values. That's why when you get "hot" with a fever, you "feel cold" >> (and want heat, blankets, etc.): the outside air is now "colder" with >> respect to your skin temp. >> In terms of Morse, if the signal you're listening to is at 800 Hz, and the >> interfering signal (or even the tone of the white noise) is at 700 Hz, the >> 100hz difference amounts to just 12%. However, if the desired signal is at >> 400 Hz, and the interfering signal at 300, that 100hz difference is now >> 25%. At 300/200, it's 50%. Bigger differences are easier to copy. >> I did have to reprogram myself to listen at the lower frequency - >> familiarity had bred contentment. >> 73 Chris NW6V >> ______________________________________________________________ >> Elecraft mailing list >> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft >> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm >> Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net >> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net >> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html >> Message delivered to ke8g....@gmail.com > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to k...@icloud.com ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
