[Elecraft] 6m off-frequency

[Richard Lamont]

On 11/06/17 22:41, Erik Basilier wrote:

> I don't have any suggestions for a solution beyond what others have already
> mentioned, but as a side note I would like to discuss the concept of "off
> frequency". 
> 
> It seems to me that these days, on the HF bands that I frequent, more and
> more people tune SSB to where the displayed frequency is on an 500 Hz
> boundary, and their rigs have sufficient frequency accuracy that excellent
> copyability results without any further adjustment. This approach is much
> faster than tuning by listening for most natural voice, which for me takes a
> few moments.
[snip]
> Now tuning SSB stations is a bit like tuning FM "channels". I am not advocating
> "channelizing" the HF bands, as we should have the freedom to select our
> frequenciy according to the situation, but a lot of times, using a frequency
> ending in zeroes saves time and effort.

I agree with all of your post, including the bits I've snipped.

These days the majority of SSB signals are not just on exact multiples
of 500 Hz, but on multiples of 1 kHz too.

I see this evolutionary development as a big improvement over the old
analogue free-running LC VFO days, before digital readouts, when we
could neither measure nor control our frequencies to better than about
500 Hz. We needed the RIT just to cope with drift!

I am not advocating channelizing the HF bands either, as this would
curtail our freedom to an extent that is difficult to justify. However,
assuming a "channel" is 3 kHz wide, if we're working to multiples of 1
kHz, then we've already moved one third of the way to de-facto
channelization without even realising it!

Nowadays one the main sources of QRM is other stations exactly one or
two kHz away from us.

If as individuals we voluntarily choose frequencies that are exact
multiples of 3 kHz, then we can help to reduce this problem. It both
reduces QRM and makes for more efficient use of the spectrum.

The only Elecraft-specific aspect of this relates to CONFIG:VFO CRS,
where the available step sizes (for SSB) are 0.1, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.5 kHz.
It would be nice if 3.0 kHz could be added to this list in a future
firmware upgrade, and the selection made per-band as well as per-mode.

73,
Richard G4DYA