[Elecraft] ClearSpeech Speaker and CW

Wed Aug 14 18:23:00 2002

Jim, I sent two messages yesterday but one apparently got lost.

When you use a CS, there is a "burst" of noise immediately after you
unkey... on ssb or cw...  apparently while the CS algorythm analyzes the
incoming audio. (It is worse in a noisy car.)  The burst lasts a second or
so until the CS takes hold and suppresses the noise.  That's what makes the
sidetone very hard to hear in the presence of noise. Between each dit and
dah is that burst of noise.  You can fix that by backing off the RF gain or
activating your Intercept Point (if the radio has one).

The design of the CS is brilliant.  It kills continuous tones... not
intermittent tones like CW.  It will actually kill a tuner-upper while, at
the same time, having zero effect on a CW signal.

In a noisy environment, running mobile CW, you will find the sidetone VERY
hard to hear unless you reduce the RF gain, etc.  I have found myself
backing off on the RFG each time I start to transmit on CW in a noisy area,
then if necessary, advancing it when the other station transmits.
Fortunately, most areas aren't that noisy.  It is a small pain in the butt
to have to futz with the RFG, but for me, the benefits of the CS make it
quite worthwhile.  It's sooooo nice to lose 90% of the background noise!!!
With a reasonably strong CW signal, you could believe he was on 2-meter FM
with the mic held up to a code oscillator.  The CS can virtually eliminate
background noise on either SSB or CW.  It's a magic box.

73... Ed, W5EJ

----- Original Message -----
From: <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 3:37 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] ClearSpeech Speaker and CW

> > I have found that statement to be wrong!  The CS has enough delay after
> the
> > AGC is activated and when you go from transmit to receive that CW
through
> it
> > works great... or at least it  always has for me at +/- 15wpm.  At 2 or
3
> > wpm, the filter would probably clip the characters.
> >
> > I own two... one mobile and one fixed.  I commonly use CW through both.
> ==============
> Well that's interesting! I spoke with the folks at AM-COM and they confirm
what Ed is saying. They did admit that there is an occasional problem on
some units but they claim that the algorithm works for CW. So any CW ops out
there that use it regularly ??? Does AGC have anything to do with it working
or not ???
>
> 73, Jim WA2UMP K2:2679
>
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