[GreenKeys] Halloween

Tue Nov 1 14:33:55 EDT 2022

*Tom and my other GreenKeys friends,*

I'm very interested to find out whether others copied poorly last night on the second run. I can't figure why that would be because the stream configurations are the same as for the last Santa Tracker, which nobody complained about. In fact, through all the learning curve, suggestions, complaints, and requests since starting these broadcasts in 2019, I've never seen complaints of bad copy until now. So if anyone else has seen this issue but is keeping quiet, please let me know. I copied the second run via fldigi and piped to heavy metal without issue, but that doesn't mean real hardware TUs won't see a difference.

I should have noticed the tones problem early on during the first run. I do apologize and am properly, publicly embarrassed for the oversight. Without going into an unearned sob story, I used to have a lot more time on my hands to dedicate to this hobby I love. fldigi annoyingly resets the tone frequencies on each launch, and I remembered to set them properly on all broadcasts until yesterday.

I may revisit migrating from fldigi to minimodem, too, which would eliminate this problem, though with the lack of time, that's not happening anytime soon. Back in 2019, minimodem was being pretty finicky, which is why I settled on fldigi despite my dislike for how heavy it is for this application. At minimum I'm putting together a broadcast initiation checklist so I don't have to rely on this ever-fuzzying brain.

*Regarding "popping on and off":*

By "popping on and off", do you mean the tones turning off for a few minutes after each message? Or some more serious issue in the middle of each message?

My streams have always been similar to the Autostart ITTY stream, i.e. stopping tones in between each message, because until yesterday, all broadcasts purposefully had messages 5, 10, 15 minutes apart, and I try to walk in the footsteps of the giants who came before me. At the last minute I thought about making this one a single, contiguous stream with no pause since the messages were meant to be one right after another anyway, but I decided against it not wishing to accidentally mess something else up. 

A while ago someone indicated his preference for keeping a carrier tone-- mark or diddle-- in between messages that are minutes or more apart, but I spoke with some other GK folks and ultimately decided not to, plus ITTY Autostart doesn't do that, and I try to follow in their footsteps. 

However, if this is the problem you're referring to, perhaps I can revisit that and consider leaving a diddle running in between messages in the future, especially if it enables more people to tune in since there are apparently TUs that can't handle it cutting in and out. Doing this would actually make some things easier as I improve the automation for the broadcast. I'm glad to take others' input as well on this subject. I'll have to review the conversations I had a few years back to see why I stayed with the ITTY Autostart standard.

>From what you're saying, Tom, it sounds like your TU actually got damaged during the broadcast?! I wasn't even aware that was possible, so if my broadcast really did that, I'm sincerely sorry, not that that brings back your TU.

*To wrap things up:*

If there's a problem with the signal, I absolutely do want to fix it. Let's work it out. If there's a problem with not leaving the mark tone in between messages, I'm already on board with revisiting that idea for sure.

A recording from yesterday's second run will be posted after I process it, but if there was a problem with the original signal, you'll most likely have the same issue with the recording.

73, if I'm still allowed to use that phrase,

-
Jordan Spencer Cunningham
teletype.net | GreenKeys Search Engine: teletype.net/gksearch
SMS via teletype: 385-308-4898 | Email via teletype: tty at nerdology.org

On Tue, Nov 1, 2022, at 9:48 AM, Tom Hunter wrote:
> Did anyone get good copy on the Halloween broadcast? I did not! (Photo attached)
> To make matters worse, even after he straightened out his tones,  he kept popping on and off and (since my Heathkit HD 3030 manual warns against letting it sit in steady mark) I had to keep turing the HW 3030 on and off. Something in it finally blew and it locked up at 100 mils, even though the lights were flashing correctly. So the below is all I got from him. That will be the last time I try to copy him - or write another story for him. Now I have to put the HW 3030 on the bench and try to fix it. 
> 
> About a month ago I offered to add a Halloween stream to my stream-set for him. It could have been streaming all day in a loop. I have never heard anyone complain about bad copy on my streams. But I never heard back from him.
> 
> By the way - to Daniel Jones or any one else with an HW 3030 or a TU-470. They are not meant to run on today's powerline voltages. I have burned out power transformers in two Heathkits. I bought a bucking transformer on eBay that knocks my 122 volts down to 118. The remaining Heathkit and my Flesher run cooler now. Of course a bucking transformer is easy enough to build. But at my age I am getting lazy. I even dread putting this Heathkit on the bench. But it is too important to me.
> 
> Tom N3CRK
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>  * Halloween.jpg
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