[Elecraft] CW Pitch Resolution

[Jim Brown]

On 10/19/2013 2:36 PM, Al Lorona wrote:
> When I was a kid 750 Hz was the most popular sidetone frequency. I have noticed a steady decrease in the consensus spot frequency over these 40 years. I don't know why.

I'll inject some science into the discussion based on my profession of 
electroacoustics.  Human perception of sound is logarithmic, both with 
respect to amplitude and frequency (pitch). Another way of saying it is 
that our ability to separate two notes is a function of their percentage 
difference.  For the same bandwidth in Hz, we have better discrimination 
between two note a lower frequency, because the difference is a higher 
percentage of the frequency.  So it's easier to discriminate a 100 Hz 
difference at 450 Hz than at 750 Hz. That's one good reason to use a 
lower pitch.

Another is that for most (but not all) of us, hearing loss is greatest 
at higher frequencies, so we old farts tend to have somewhat better 
hearing at 450 Hz than at 1 kHz.  That's not universal though -- those 
of us who were exposed to noise (usually at work) that's much louder at 
some frequency(ies) tend to develop notches in our hearing at those 
frequencies.

73, Jim K9YC