[Elecraft] Chirp

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Bob wrote:
Why not a "spark" mode - a nice raspy signal. That would make the signal
really stand out :-)

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Sure would. All we need is a way to keep the sidebands within the 50 Hz
or so bandwidth of a "normal" CW signal <G>. 

Of course once everyone had a rasp or a chirp that sounded identical,
the clean CW signal would be the one to stand out! 

It's getting hard to remember the days when we could tune across 40
meters (300 kHz of solid CW, by the way. No phone. No foreign
broadcast.) and pick out individual ops by their fists and the sound of
their sigs. Not big chirps or clicks, necessarily (although there was
often one or two of those) but simple small differences in the keying
characteristics, a tiny touch of power supply 'hum' perhaps and, of
course, the variations in each ops rhythms on a manual keys. 

No need to wait for a call sign. I could recognize Marlow or Les or
Lanny or Jerry by the sound of half a dozen characters of CW. 

The more we put logic and microprocessors between the ops and the sigs,
the more boringly similar they become ... 

Ron AC7AC
K2 # 1289