[Elecraft] K3: CW feature request

[Alan Bloom]

On Wed, 2009-12-02 at 18:36 -0800, wb6rse1 at mac.com wrote:
> LSB on the lower bands and USB on the higher bands is an artifact of  
> the mixing scheme, from the early days of SSB, of a 9 Mc IF mixed with  
> a 5.0 - 5.5 Mc VFO. (Yes, it was Mc in those days, not MHz.) Add and  
> you get 20m. Subtract and you get 80m. The subtraction results in  
> sideband reversal and so LSB became the "standard" for 80m. There is  
> really no reason now to not to just operate USB on all bands other  
> than tradition.

I've heard people say that many times over the years but clearly it's
not true.  A 9 MHz IF set up for (let's say) USB will still be USB no
matter whether you add or subtract the 5-5.5 MHz VFO.

What DOES result in opposite sidebands is to swap the IF and VFO
frequencies, that is, using an IF in the 5 MHz range and a VFO in the 9
MHz range to get 80 and 20 meters without having to band-switch the VFO.
I believe some early SSB rigs used that scheme, so that may be the
origin of the current standard.

Al N1AL