[1000mp] ARRL testing of Clicks

[Tom Rauch]

> Unfortunately, Tom, most readers don't share our enthusiasm for test
> data. That is why ARRL started creating the separate test-result
> reports. 

That implies amateurs as a group care less if they have nasty signals 
or not. I do not think that is true at all. I think nearly 100% of 
amateurs, if given CLEAR information or comparisons, would pick the 
best radios both for transmitting and receiving.

While I appreciate all the work you do....I think it is the ARRL who 
has decided what people need to see in reviews.....not the other way 
around. 
 
> Having said that, though, I believe that things like good or bad
> keying, or even transmit IMD results, should be discussed more
> thoroughly in the running text.  That will probably have more of an

I do too. One thing you could do is publish a bandwidth spec for 
transmitters under real operation, as has been done with receivers 
for many years. That would prevent glossing over the facts with 
creative and/or incorrect verbiage. 

> impact that would publishing a keying-sideband photo that has meaning
> to only a relatively small subset of hamdom.  To do that, however,

Then do it by numbers. "The bandwidth of the FT33 is xxkHz at -50dB." 
That would mean something to everyone.

A picture of the keying waveform is a total waste of space unless 
someone has a magnifying glass and knows what to look for, yet there 
seems to be room for that! Who gives a crap what the envelope looks 
like, put it all in numbers. "The IC-706 truncates the leading edge 
of all CW elements by 2mS when in QSK." 

Better than showing them one dot and dash, when it clips dots and 
dashes all by that amount. 

> IMHO it is critical that it be done as uniformly as possible. 

Establish a uniform test, and hold 'em all to it! 

You just watch and see how much better gear gets when people 
understand how things really compare.

Few of the manufacturers even know what the heck weight is any more. 
They think ratio is weight! W9TO got it right in 50's, Curtis got it 
right in the 70's, MFJ got it right in the 80's. Now most radio 
designers working for manufacturers haven't a clue how to build a 
keyer, and we depend on them to eliminate clicks!!! 

If you said one word in a review about a radio having a useless silly 
ratio control and lacking a weight control, it would probably make it 
back to the engineer and the problem would go away. Just like clicks 
would.

It's our job to educate the inexperienced new engineers in how these 
systems actually work, before we all die and no one knows how any of 
this stuff is supposed to work. It's time to work on this.

73, Tom W8JI
W8JI@contesting.com