[1000mp] Key Clicks

[Tod - Minnesota]

Fellow Reflectees:

I have diligently read all of the 'key click' messages.

As a summary I find that:

(1). Some people suspect that many/most/all of the FT1000MP radios have key
clicks.
(2). Some people suspect that some/many/all of the FT1000MP-MarkV radios
have key clicks.
(3). Some people feel they have reduced their key clicks so that they will
not be embarrassed to operate.
(4). Several people have listed ways to try to see if your radio may have
more key clicks than you are comfortable having.

I wonder if it is possible to detail a method that will tell YES or NO one's
radio has "bad" clicks. To do that I suppose we must agree on what "bad" is.

I suggest that based upon what has been written to this point that if there
are no clicks measured higher than -50 dB referenced to the carrier within
+/- 250 Hz of the carrier frequency we should say that the 'click level'
meets "good amateur practice".

Now some may wish to make the -50 dB higher or lower and I have no issue
with that as long as everyone (almost) agrees on the number. The +/- 250Hz
is based upon filter pass bands of 500Hz and again could be different if
everyone (almost) agrees on a different value.

One there is an agreed upon standard for "good amateur practice" we need to
agree on a "Standard Method" to measure whether a particular radio meets the
standard. After we have these two things in place we can collect data on
various radios and know that we are comparing apples with apples and oranges
with oranges. Also, we can consider various proposed modifications in light
of the standard and decide which ones to implement for ourselves.

I don't get the impression that anyone is against finding ways to reduce
radiated clicks. I do think there is a lot of fuzzy agreement about what
constitutes clicks and how to measure them. It is unlikely that we can
reduce them to zero by any method but putting out contracts on all active
amateurs (makes QSO's and QSLing rather difficult), but we should be able to
know when one radio is better or worse than another and perhaps reduce the
click level by a notable amount.

Tod, KOTO