[GreenKeys] Tuning tty signals

[telegrapher@att.net]

I didn't see my original msg come back so i don't know where it went.  

Tuning and setting your receiver and adjunct transmitter to the same frequency is really not a big deal.  Ask the folks who used the Hallicrafters SX-100 or Collins 74A series or Hammarlund or Drake gear.  It was pretty much old hat.  

If your tuning in an rtty signal and you've done this before, no problem as you've got half the job done.  Setting the transmitter to the same frequency is just as easy.  Using my ST-6 as an example, when i tuned in the signal i wanted to copy with the ST-6 i tuned the receiver till i got a peak on the meter and usually at the same time you would see the mark-space light flicker and then the mark lamp would remain on steady.  Setting the transmitter to the same frequency require little more than zero beating the vfo of the transmitter to the receiver.  If the output of the transmitter, using the "zero or spot" function was low, you could hear that signal in the receiver.  At the same time you could see it on the meter of the ST-6 and when it again peaked the meter you were set to the same frequency as the receiver.

Now i know there are some variables here.  It may take you a couple of tries to develop the correct "ear" for doing this.  I always ran the ST-6 into the Drake gear and never used either VFO to control both units as in transceive.  Cause if one of them was drifting, then you could walk yourself up or down the band chasing the other guy who was chasing you.  Same method applied only with out the ST-6 when using CW or SSB.  COurse with todays newer operators who've never experienced the spotting or "zeroing" of seperate units, this will be another learning curve.  

Its really a simple task and with todays transceivers you don't even have to think about it.  Once your receiving a station properly, all you have to do is go into the transmit mode and away you go.  

My opinion is that this is such a simple thing to do that its becoming a "mountain out of a molehill" scenario.  Any ham who is contemplating rtty operation with seperate receiver/transmitter unit should know how to do this.  If not, try CW first.

FWIW.......


Larry
W0OGH