[CW] Doesn't anyone know how to zero-beat anymore?

[Ed Tanton]

And THAT (excerpted below) is THE way to do it Ken. I have always been
terrible using transceivers (ESPECIALLY Direct Conversion QRP xcvrs)-until I
figured out to do what you described: find the right place to 'be' when
calling: which side of his zero beat, and what received tone you had to tune
yourself to. Sometimes (Drake rigs are best at this) having passband tuning
really aids in this-again: once you find the right place. 

The other big aid for this kind of thing is a 2nd receiver. Then, you know
where he is, and you know where you are... but that doesn't truly tell you
what/where HIS offsets are set! Usually works pretty well though.

In DX Pileups, I have always used my 2nd receiver to find where the DX
station is listening (on freq, or UP xx kHz, or DOWN xx kHz)-by finding who
he's talking to, and making sure that's where I am... unless... he's
frequency-hopping. Then you try and figure out his listening pattern...
changing how (jumps in linear steps (up or down or back & forth/jumps in
random steps/how often/etc. etc.)

Of course, my mainstay rig for years (when not QRP) has been my EFJ Ranger
II and whatever receiver is the flavor of the month/whatever; plus my
receiver rack usually with my RACAL RA6790/GM. This with a B&W T/R SW and a
receiving multicoupler. So, ever since I sold my own OMNI VI, I have not had
xcvr-zero problems much.

Once I get this HyGain HyTower I'm doing put up and on the air, I think the
receiver for a while will be the 75A-4. And I have gotten a yearning to do
some Contesting again-sometimes at QRP; and sometimes with that NCL-2000 I
picked up several years ago that Svetlana converted to a pair of 4CX-400s (a
beautiful job by the way-even if I don't approve of doing such things. [I
will say 8122s were miserable tubes though.] It was done before I got it,
and you pretty much can't tell it didn't come that way. That and the really
nice exterior condition convinced me to make the trade.) 

P.S. I consider my OMNI VI to have been over and above the best xcvr I ever
owned. Wonderful full break-in. I just wasn't using it because of my Boat
Anchor interests. Still wish I hadn't sold it.


73  Ed Tanton N4XY <n4xy at earthlink.net> 
 
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///snip

I recently had trouble in the Stew Perry Top Band Distance Challenge 
warm up session, at a friend's QTH using a Yaesu FT-1000. Finally I 
determined what received tone resulted in stations hearing me, and it 
had no relation to the sidetone frequency that I could figure out.

It was easier when we mostly had separate transmitters and receivers. 
Using the spot function of the transmitter, to zero beat to the other 
station, listening with the receiver, was so simple and effective. As 
long as you did not get your TX on the opposite sideband, it worked 
every time.

I like the way my Ten-Tec Omni VI works. I know some rigs also have 
adjustable sidetone frequency, but do not make the transmit offset track 
the sidetone frequency.

DE N6KB

///snip