[Fists] Re: zero beat.

[kc9brz]

> From: "K3PID" <k3pid at sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: [Fists] Doesn't anyone know how to zero-beat anymore?
> 
> I've been sitting here working on my computer for a couple of hours and
> listening to the 40 meter CW traffic. I've had to open up my passband to 2
> kHz to copy both side of most of the QSO's. This is just plain poor ham radio
> and it waste 2X spectrum! I unstood the problem when most of us were rock
> bound but with todays rigs, it's a piece of cake to zero beat the other guy.

I'm still a rookie at CW.  What's the difference between 
"zero beat" and "being on the same frequency" ?  They're 
the same thing, aren't they?

And how close do you really need to be?  I've encountered 
some stations that seem to have a noticeable frequency 
drift while they are calling CQ or during a QSO. So usually 
I leave my receive bandwidth filter (Ten-Tec Jupiter) at 
about 500 Hz after the QSO begins. And I use about 1000 Hz 
receive bandwidth filter while looking for stations, or 
while calling CQ.

I read Eric's (N3EF) page about zero-beating here:
http://home.comcast.net/~fairbank56/zerobeat.html

But in order to do that, doesn't one station have to go 
"key down" for a few seconds straight?   How can you 
hear the "wow-wow-wow" (going in and out of phase) if 
the other guy is making dits and dahs?

My Jupiter has a "SPOT" key, which gives you a local 
(non-transmitted) sidetone sound coming out the speaker, 
at the side-tone frequency that you have specified in 
the setup menu.  I figured that is for matching the 
other person's frequency, but the manual doesn't break 
it down into the baby-steps I need.  

And unless I ask the other guy to go key-down for a while 
in order to hear the phasing of the "wow-wow-wow", then 
I'm just limited to trying to match the pitch.  Which is 
hard for us guys who can't carry a tune in a bucket.

So do you ask the other guy to "key down" so you can zero-beat?
What if you both have only paddles with keyers, and can't do
that?


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