[Boatanchors] "Chirp is a Beautiful Thing"

[Bill Cromwell]

Hi,

Some of the old timers like to howl and carry on about how they used to 
walk 10 miles to school through chest deep snow uphill both ways. And 
how they could so easily pick out one transmitter from the many that 
could be heard simultaneously on a novice band. Those transmitters all 
had their own, individual voices and combining that with all those 
individual fists - of course it was easy. At least less difficult. Some 
amount of chirp is one of the ingredients. The accursed 'yaecomwood' 
radios are pretty much "sterile" and all sound alike. CW is sent by 
keyers, memory keyers, and computers. Pretty much sterile, too.

I have looked at some signals with varying amounts of chirp on waterfall 
displays and I see a small "j" hook on the leading edge. It doesn't take 
much. There is no need to sweep a dit or dah across two or three QSOs in 
progress but a small dose of chirp goes a long way toward individual 
identification. Put the same amount of 'hook' on the other side and two 
otherwise identical stations are *different*. I have heard some signals 
in the past that I know must be from a  small amount of modulation - 
perhaps FM - on that CW tone. It wasn't enough to identify the source of 
the "problem" but it was enough to identify one ham and his station - 
instantly. Operating as NCS in NTS traffic nets I could recognize and 
acknowledge certain stations from just one character in Morse. It isn't 
all bad.

73,

Bill  KU8H

On 12/29/2016 08:51 AM, Dale Parfitt wrote:
> One of my early 1296MHZ transverters came with the local oscillator regulators installed backwards. The result was chirp. During the ARRL EME contest, lots of participants thanked me for the chirp as it allowed for immediate ID of my station and those that had already worked me  could move on.
>
> Dale W4OP
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Boatanchors [mailto:boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Les Zwiebel
> Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2016 11:57 PM
> To: Paul Baldock; Whitebear1122; boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
> Cc: Boatanchors-qth
> Subject: [Boatanchors] "Chirp is a Beautiful Thing"
>
> My friend Denny was once hoping to be heard in a DX pileup while calling with a novice level QRP rig. The DX then broadcast, "All stations stand by for QRP with Chirp." And they did and he worked him. (((73)))Les WB6ORZ
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Paul Baldock <paul at paulbaldock.com>
> Date: 12/28/2016  8:28 PM  (GMT-08:00)
> To: Whitebear1122 <whitebear1122 at comcast.net>, boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Anyone Using a Navigator on 20 Meters?
>
> At 07:47 PM 12/28/2016, Whitebear1122 wrote:
>>    Sounds good on 80 meters, found it chirpy on 20 meters.   Too
>> chirpy to take it out for a spin with a CQ.  That Navigator is the
>> cutest little thing but I admit the 20 some watts output is too QRP for me.
> Why are you worried about chirp. Chirp is a beautiful thing and sets you apart from the modern SS rigs. Get on Straight Key Night this weekend and swing with rest of the old clunkers.
>
> If you need an amp, look for an old Heathkit SB200, $300 max. Or if you home brew a couple of 813s grid driven will easily give you over 500W.
>
> - Paul  KW7Y
>
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-- 
bark less - wag more