Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:
For CW signals the solution was easy. One added a "hard limiter" to the
audio channel. If a really strong signal was encountered without warning, it
was clipped of at some preset maximum volume (below the threshold of pain,
hopefully). Most operators used the limiter at all times in case a huge
signal came on frequency.
Commercial CW ops wore their phones somewhat forward on their ears to
protect them against very strong signals [like being called by a ship
right off the coast 15 miles from your rx site]. In the mid-50's as a
16-yr old brand new relief op, I have a very distinct memory of being
whacked on the side of my head by my "mentor" standing behind me when I
put the cans on directly over my ears. I still remember the raspy note
on strong signals. Wasn't all that bad a sound, actually. Despite the
limiter however, the beat "note" still got louder a signal got
stronger. My guess is that as the clipping became deeper, the beat note
gained more and more spectral garbage and it just sounded louder. I
might be wrong, however. That's happened one or two times in my life.
The "rule" always was, "RF gain full for AM, AF gain controls volume.
AF gain full for CW, RF gain controls volume." I did this with my SX-28
and you really had to or strong signals in the IF would greatly exceed
the BFO level and the beat note would get weak and noisy. There was no
BFO for AM of course, but as SSB arrived on the scene, you had to use
the CW technique or it sounded like donald duck. The "rule" went away
when product detectors arrived on the scene. I rarely ... if ever ...
touch the RF gain on any of my rigs including the KX1. I've never had
my K2 on SSB ... I need to try that and see how it sounds.
Somewhere in all this technical history, there appeared "hang AGC,"
billed at the time as the "greatest AGC since canned beer." It attacked
rather quickly and then remembered it's last value for short time after
the signal went away, like when the station paused in talking. When it
released, it did so rather quickly. I think my Drake 2B might have had
something like it, or maybe not. I was never fond of hang AGC and I
really enjoyed the 2B. Did hang AGC just fade from the ham RX scene?
Put me down in the group that likes the K2 AGC action a lot. It's
pretty much invisible, just doing what I expect it to do. I'll have to
try it out on SSB and see if it sounds better on FAST or SLOW, but on
CW, it's just great for me.
Re S-meters and RST: Does it matter if I'm S2 or S9 if the "R" is "5?"
In fact, does "S" matter if the "R" is a "2" or "3"? Besides, all my
contacts tell me I'm 5NN ... every time .. anyway. The "T" long ago
outlived it's usefulness, and if we did away with S and T, think how
many more Q's DXpeditions could make in their limited time. In fact,
since R will always equal 5 in such Q's, skip it too. If I hear my
call, I'm in their log. Do I really need to hear "5NN" when I and the
entire rest of the planet patiently [ ;-) ] waiting to call knows
that's what it will be?. Probably something wrong with that idea too.
73,
Fred K6DGW
-- Northern California Contest Club
-- CU in the Cal QSO Party 6-7 Oct
-- <www.cqp.org>
_______________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net
You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
