[ARC5] Zero Beat Question

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

On 7 Jul 2016 at 20:57, hwhall at compuserve.com wrote:

> If you do you can probably use
> it to determine the exact zero beat by listening to it wax and wane.
> >
> 
> I've noticed many radios, when you are very close to zero beat & the beatnote is too low to hear 
> as a tone, the volume of the background hiss of the radio will be heard to rise & fall in step with 
> the slow beatnote, so that you can get quite close to zero by tweaking until the rise & fall slows to 
> a stop or nearly so. I think that's what he meant by "wax and wane."

Yes. That is exactly what he meant. I use this method very often to zero-beat certain crystal 
oscillators with 10 MHz WWV. One or the other of my BC-221s, and a Heathkit frequency 
counter with a heater in it, for instance. I can fairly easily adjust that "waxing and waning" to 
very near zero: to much less than 1 CPS in fact....MUCH less.

Of course it doesn't hold too long, but it holds "long enough".

Ken W7EKB