[Elecraft] Poor band conditions? Try the SCAN function

[Gary Smith]

The bands have indeed been in lousy shape lately; There was a SP RTTY 
contest on this weekend and I made two QSOs on 21 MHz, zero on 28 MHz 
and around 130 of them on 20M & 40M. Only three Q's on 80M. The bands 
were just lousy.

While the bands just aren't good at all right now, thanks for the 
reminder of that excellent "search" feature. Thanks to the beauty of 
the P3, I use that to find where there's "life" on the bands but sans 
P3, the search is golden.

73,

Gary
KA1J


> Here in Northern California, at least at my QTH, the bands seem to be in very poor shape. (It doesn't help that my OCF dipole has one leg on the ground due to high winds.)
> 
> At times like this, the SCAN function available on most Elecraft transceivers can help you find signals you might otherwise miss. SCAN does the work for you while you check your email, play chess, re-read The Lord of the Rings, shave, etc. 
> 
> When a signal pops up, scanning stops, and the receiver unmutes briefly so you can consider the signal's worthiness. As you'll discover, bands that were "dead" may not be, in reality. My favorite band for this sort of thing is 15 meters, in the late afternoon. A minute or two after starting a scan, you may hear DX appear from out of nowhere.
> 
> For specific instructions for your rig, check the table of contents in the owner's manual. 
> 
> Here a few general tips:
> 
> - use a narrow filter passband when possible, especially if the band is noisy
> 
> - the tuning RATE in effect when scan starts determines how long it takes
>   to scan the selected segment; finer-tuning slows things down, and may result
>   in detection of weaker signals
> 
> - if the band is noisy (QRN), the SCAN function may unmute too frequently; try
>   using the noise blanker
> 
> 73,
> Wayne
> N6KR
> 
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