[Kenwood] Re: Personal Opinion on mikes

[Fred Adsit]

Please read ALL of this message before flying off the handle. We US hams
are, in the FCC's rules, "self regulating". Later I make that point.

Take a look at the following series of FCC citations re bandwidth:

http://www.arrl.org/news/enforcement_logs/2003/0419.html

Part 97 appears here:

http://www.arrl.org/files/infoserv/rib/part97.txt

The U.S. FCC rules have been watered down. Here is an on-topic sentence in
the rules:

Section 97.307(a) of the Commission's Rules requires that no amateur
station transmission shall occupy more bandwidth that necessary for the
information rate and emission type being transmitted, in accordance with
good amateur practice.

What "good amateur practice" is re phone operation, is loosely defined in
the following FCC enforcement statement:

"Section 97.101 applies to all amateur stations at all times. When an
amateur station transmits a voice emission that occupies more bandwidth
than necessary in order to achieve a "great audio" sound, that emission
occupies spectrum that could be utilized by several other amateur
stations. To occupy more bandwidth necessary in a heavily used amateur
band is not only extremely inconsiderate, but is contrary to requirement
that amateur operators cooperate in the utilization of frequencies
allocated to them, and make the most effective use of them."

Whatever floats your boat. This topic is a stand-off, IMO. I reckon you
can do whatever you please, within reason, with your Heil mic or ANY mic
when using AM and a really classy wideband transmitter, on, let us say,
75M phone. Just don't aggravate Riley Hollingsworth and Company if you are
licensed by the FCC. The band is crowded as it is, mainly with SSB
stations. Fortunately, the experimenters do not operate all over the band,
debating who sounds better on AM. Nothing wrong with doing it as long as
you don't splatter, and that rule applies to SSB as well. From what I can
tell from the doublespeak in Part 97, to cite a sticky aspect of this, a
strong signal outside the band edge, let us say right above 4 Mhz, seems
to be considered with a 3KHz bandwidth phone signal in mind. Now, if you
are operating an AM signal there with "great audio" and a rig that will
pass that audio faithfully, some little elf tells me you /may/ hear from
the FCC. Just a /guess/. But I also think it helps support my feelings, so
I offer it for consideration only.

I cannot "win" this discussion, nor do I wish to discourage hams from
comparing audio quality of some great pieces of vintage ham gear. I tune
in myself and find it all very interesting and reminiscent of the days
when I started back in 1948. In today's operating environment, I just
would have one heck of a time operating even SSB anywhere near that
frequency. Since I don't need to, I don't try.

Being penitent and suffering from Mic in Mouth Disease and being mainly a
CW operator, I remain,
Fred NY2V