[Elecraft] The Emperor's New Key Clicks

[Wallace, Andy]

I heard an interesting thing during the EQP this past weekend:
what I thought was an opposite-sideband rejection issue with
my K2 filter settings was really key clicks!

I had fiddled with the K2 filter settings because a low sidetone
offset frequency like 400 Hz seemed to have poorer opposite sideband
rejection than higher settings. Some other List members even made
that suggestion. 

Currently, I've got mine set to 480 Hz, which sounds good. Even
that low, you can get very close to an interfering station before
the desired CW station is difficult to copy. 

As I tuned among the wealth of K2s and K1s this past weekend, I
noticed that it was only when I tuned across various other brands
that I had the key click phenomenon audible in the opposite sideband!
The K2s were cleaner! I know that should be no surprise, but for
me the shock was that I could get almost down to the ZERO BEAT
without losing a weaker station also in the passband!

This was with stations which were S-9 on the meter, so I was
trying to compare apples to apples here. 

Just amazing. 

But even the "lesser" rigs' keyclicks didn't kill the K2 -- again,
the weak station was still copyable. Just wonderful, isn't it,
when the receiver is so good that you can tell when someone else's
waveshape is not so perfect!

Andy