[Elecraft] K3: Voice pitch adjustment on SSB

[O. Johns]

Jim,

Does conjure up a picture, doesn't it?  Of course, only net control  
would transmit.  The others would just blow and listen.  And, of  
course, actual pitch pipes are not the way to go.  Too spectrally  
impure.

73,

Oliver W6ODJ


On 14 Aug 2008, at 5:14 PM, Jim Cox wrote:

> Would love to hear a bunch of hams with pitch pipes.   I think we  
> have enough qrm as it is.  Thanks goodness I stay away from nets.    
> Jim K4JAF
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "O. Johns" <ojohns at metacosmos.org>
> To: "Jim Cox" <jcox123 at bellsouth.net>
> Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2008 7:00 PM
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3: Voice pitch adjustment on SSB
>
>
>> Nope.  Not kidding.  Not at all.
>>
>> 73,
>> W6ODJ
>>
>> On 14 Aug 2008, at 4:54 PM, Jim Cox wrote:
>>
>>> I think your a bit ahead of Aprils Fools day!  You must be kidding  
>>> OM
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "O. Johns"  
>>> <ojohns at metacosmos.org>
>>> To: <Elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
>>> Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2008 6:41 PM
>>> Subject: [Elecraft] K3: Voice pitch adjustment on SSB
>>>
>>>
>>>> Folks,
>>>> I read the web pages about ESSB, after seeing on the reflector   
>>>> that the K3 now supports it.  It struck me that even ESSB  
>>>> doesn't  solve one big issue with voice transmission: PITCH.   
>>>> Tuning the  SSB receiver changes the overall pitch of the  
>>>> received voice.   Unless you have met the sending ham or at least  
>>>> talked to him/her  on the phone (or on AM!!), you have no real  
>>>> idea how high- or low- pitched the voice really is.  One can only  
>>>> guess, and get a sort  of feel for what a reasonable tuning is.
>>>> One way to solve this may seem a joke, but it isn't.  Everyone   
>>>> should buy a little 440 Hz pitch pipe, the kind used to tune   
>>>> musical instruments.  Then, say, the net control could blow his   
>>>> pitch pipe at the start of the net and all the listeners could   
>>>> blow their little pitch pipes while listening to net control.    
>>>> They would all then adjust their receiver tunings until the   
>>>> pitches matched.  Like a shortwave orchestra tuning up.  (Of   
>>>> course, this might violate the FCC rule against music on ham   
>>>> radio, but maybe not if the pitch pipe was near a pure sine  
>>>> wave.   Then the signal transmitted by net control would be just  
>>>> an  ordinary CW signal, but at 440 Hz from the net control's   
>>>> suppressed carrier.)
>>>> A refinement would be to build a pure 440 Hz tone generator into   
>>>> the microphone preamps of radios.  Net control pushes a button   
>>>> while transmitting and it goes out over the air.  The net  
>>>> members  push another button while receiving to produce a 440 Hz  
>>>> tone in  their speakers along with the received signal from net  
>>>> control.   Then the receiving operators adjust their receiver  
>>>> tuning until  the pitches coincide.  For the tone challenged  
>>>> among us, the  receiver tuning could even be automated, much like  
>>>> the K3 already  does for sidetone on CW.
>>>> This scheme came to me when I was adjusting the audio parameters  
>>>> on  my K2.  I had the K2 running into a dummy load, and was  
>>>> listening  to it on headphones plugged into a TenTec RX320D  
>>>> across the room.   Since the K2 was on a dummy load, I tried  
>>>> whistling and was  surprised and pleased to find that the PITCH  
>>>> of my whistle didn't  match the one I was hearing on the phones.   
>>>> But I could adjust the  RX320D tuning until they did match.   
>>>> Guarantee of zero beat and  realistic pitch in voice reception.
>>>> Doesn't seem that this would be too hard to do.  Maybe the K3   
>>>> could even do it in firmware?
>>>> 73,
>>>> Oliver Johns W6ODJ
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>>>
>
>