[CW] W5YI groups suggestions...

[Donald Chester]

>
>In terms of SSB filters, most of the "good buddy" SSB
>crowd want wider filters than what is standard.  They
>think Hi Fidelity beats copyability


I totally disagree.  The "good buddy" types are prefectly happy with a stock 
radio with "standard" SSB filter and NO cw filter.  They don't care anymore 
about about voice quality than they do cw; just turn up the "processor" and 
splatter all over the band with a voice signal that has a similar sound to 
that of ripping a piece of newspaper in half.  Most important is to be 
louder than the other guys on the band.

The phone ops who are interested in voice quality are amongst the very few 
present-day amateurs who actually work on, modify or even homebrew their own 
equipment.  They actually dare touch a soldering iron to the innards of the 
latest Kenyaecom gizmo!  And they have gotten past the belief that was 
instilled in the ham radio community for years, that amateur phone is 
supposed to sound like crap and that voice quality is irrelevant as long as 
it is "readable".

This is not just a "phone" problem.  The same applies to CW operation.  
There have been a  lot of complaints lately about some of the most expensive 
recently built top-of-the-line rigs from Asia having severe key-clicks.  
Apparently that has been causing a real problem on 160m. during the cw 
contests.  There are simple fixes to make these rigs click-free.  W8JI has 
published a number of modifications on his website and this has been a hot 
topic of discussion on the Topband Reflector.  It would cost the 
manufacturers no more than a few dollars to incorporate these simple circuit 
changes into their rigs, but they have shown a total lack of interest.  
Several hams have attempted to contact the manufacturers and present 
well-documented data, along with proven fixes for the problem, but the 
companies didn't even have the courtesy to respond.

The problem with publishing circuit modifications so that hams could install 
fixes in their own rigs is that 99% of the appliance operators that populate 
our bands these days are fearful of even taking the cover off their 
Yaecomwood wonders.

Don K4KYV

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