[Elecraft] OT-old vs. new 6L6 to K3

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

I also used that Tri-Tet circuit in my first Novice rig. I was able to
listen to the keying thanks to a buddy a few miles away. We'd talk on the
telephone while keying our rigs to hear what they actually sounded like. 

It can be run with very, very little chirp on the lower frequency bands. The
chirp is directly proportional to power output and, in a time when "yooping"
signals were common, the desire to increase the loading to pump up the RF
output often overcame concerns about signal quality. So most of us balanced
output and chirp at then-acceptable levels. For many, as long as it would
start oscillating when the key was closed, it was good enough, Hi!

Later, I successfully used the much newer 6146 and even a 5763 in one-lung
oscillators on 40 and 20 meters without detectable chirp. The newer higher
gain beam power tubes were much easier to "tame" than the earlier 6L6, 6V6
and 807. 

Building a one-tube transmitter that didn't have detectable chirp was an
interesting design challenge in the 1960's. 

Also the chirp depended greatly on the frequency. He used a 40 meter crystal
multiplying the frequency by 4 to reach ten meters. That means the chirp is
four times worse too! I would not have expected any better from my rigs.

We can cram a lot more signals into the bands these days. Putting more
signals in less spectrum has been a challenge for Hams since the 1920's. But
us OT's are often a bit nostalgic for CW bands where one could recognize a
station by the sound of his (or her) signal and "fist". Back then a CW band
sounded like a room full of people, each with a distinctive voice that could
be picked out easily even without listening to the words. Nowadays the same
CW bands sound like a room full of computer-generated voices, all identical
except for the words. And, with the digital modes, there aren't even any
words to hear. The world moves on. Our challenge is to move on with it and
keep looking over the horizon ahead. 

73,

Ron AC7AC