[Elecraft] [K3] VFO fine-coarse tuning

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

The problem is that if you changed the tuning rate when not at a ".000"
setting and the system automatically put you on a ".000" setting, the rig
would change frequency by that amount, either xmit or receive!

Normally you'll be going from fine to coarse, so one would expect that you'd
not care about the digits you're hiding or the offset they represent since
you're hiding them. 

But, with today's tendency for some Hams to "channelize", for example
routinely assuming that SSB stations are on exactly 2.5 kHz intervals across
the SSB sub band, it can sometimes result in an apparent "tuning error"
unless you go to the fine rate and correct the offset. 

One hilarious episode happened to me when I tuned up on 75 meter SSB one
morning and signed my call. A station called me back saying I was "off
frequency". 

"Off frequency?" I wasn't in a QSO. I replied and asked him what he meant.
He said that I was a few hundred Hz "high". 

"High? High from what?"

"You're at 3987.8 instead of at 3987.5 where you belong," he replied. 

I thought, "Oh my gosh! We really need a better examination question pool
for the newbies!" 

Ron AC7AC 



-----Original Message-----

Let's say I'm tuning in FINE mode (to the 1 Hz digit) and the VFO says
50.135.056. If I then go to COARSE (to the 100 Hz digit), tune to a VFO
indication of, say, 50.145.0, I intuitively expect that the actual VFO
frequency will be 50.145.000 -- but it continues to carry the FINE 10s and
1s digits as an offset, so the actual frequency is 50.145.056, which is
revealed by tapping the FINE button. This was probably an intentional design
choice based on how other rigs work -- but it's not the way it seems like it
should be, to me. Intuitively, it seems like if it says 50.145.0, it should
be 50.145.000. Am I completely wrong-headed here? Comments?

Bill W5WVO