[Elecraft] Zero Beat

[Don Wilhelm]

  Dale,

Let's face reality.  Only 35% of the hams on the air know how to 
zero-beat (maybe it is 20%, I have not taken a poll).  They just trust 
that their transceivers will do the job for them - if they can hear the 
other signal, then they assume they will transmit on their frequency - 
without regard to how far off the center frequency they may be.

I have had K2s here for repair where the operator said he wanted a 750 
Hz sidetone pitch, but I discover that he has the ST P parameter set for 
the default of 600 Hz,  That is an automatic 150 Hz misalignment of the 
received pitch and the transmitter offset.

Tell you K1, K2, K3 the sidetone pitch that you prefer to listen to, and 
set the menu for that same sidetone pitch.  Those transceivers (and many 
others) will offset the transmit frequency by the frequency that you 
have set in the menu.  So the remaining problem is to tune the desired 
signal in at your chosen sidetone pitch - some do that well, and some do 
that poorly.

We have lost a lot in moving from separate transmitters and receivers to 
transceivers.  Sure the Transceiver can do it "automagically", but it 
all depends on the parameters you have set into the transceiver.

Yes, I have even heard some "old-timers" who knew quite well how to 
zero-beat using separate transmitters and receivers that have become 
confused with the concept of zero-beating when using a transceiver.  
That is just sad to me, but has to be dealt with as a "fact of life".

Know your transceiver and know your operating conditions, and set things 
up accordingly -- in other words RTFM.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 1/31/2011 7:07 PM, Dale Putnam wrote:
> I wonder, wouldn't pass band tuning do well at that too? And yes, zero beating would be nice too. Zerobeating would be doable, it would seem, if both radios were K3s, and could talk to each other, say on the internet, or a different path, digital, to perform the necessary handshake and tx adjustments.
>
> --... ...-- Dale - WC7S in Wy
>