[Icom] CW Spotting Procedure for 756 Pro II

Fri, 21 Feb 2003 19:55:29 -0600

John, the short answer is to listen to your selected CW Pitch tone and then
tune the dial so that the received station has that same tone. That is how
you judge it by ear.

If you must be exact, then you need an external audio spectrum analyzer such
as SpectroGram or any of the PSK31 programs. I find that DigiPan is very
useful for this purpose.

If you have chosen 700 Hz for example for your offset pitch, then put a
marker on the waterfall at 700 Hz. Tune  the dial until the received
station's "track" is under the 700 Hz marker line. You will then transmit on
his r-f frequency.

An approximate method if your ear pitch is a little off is to set up a very
narrow filter - say 50 or 100 Hz - and then tune the station in until the
signal peaks within that passband. That will get you very close.

Another ear aid is to turn off QSK and then operate the key to produce a
keying sidetone (but no r-f output) and tune the signal until it is at the
same pitch as your keying sidetone signal.

Yet another approach is to tune in the signal to about what you think is the
proper frequency and then change to CW-Reverse. If the beatnote pitch does
not change, you are right on the button. If it does, move the dial a little
and switch back to CW and check for the same beatnote. If still not the
same,move the dial a little and go to CW-R. Keep on doing this until there
is no change in beatnote when changing from CW to CW-R. Then y you are
exactly on his frequency.

Lots of ways to do this, but don't get carried away. It is rather seldom
that one must be *exactly* on the other station's frequency. He will hear
you if you are anywhere within the usual CW passband of 500 Hz.

Hope this helps a little . . .

73/72, George
Amateur Radio W5YR -  the Yellow Rose of Texas
Fairview, TX 30 mi NE of Dallas in Collin county EM13QE
"In the 57th year and it just keeps getting better!"

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]On
Behalf Of John Seney
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2003 7:26 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Icom] CW Spotting Procedure for 756 Pro II

>At 07:34 PM 2/21/03 -0500, you wrote:
>>How do you set up a 756 Pro II so you can go back at the
>>exact same frequency in CW of the station that you are
>>listening?
>
>Where are you going?  If I am tuning around and want to save a freq,
>I press and hold the CHANGE button, putting it in the other VFO.
>You can also use the stack registers.

Thats a good tip - but I'm talking about zero beating the
same transmit frequency in CW that I am listening to so as
to avoid unnecessary spectrum use and increase my chances
of QSOs. CW spotting - where my frequency is right on top of
the guy I'm calling and our BFO frequencies don't offset our
transmit frequencies.