[Lowfer] KFI Captures and stability of AM Stations

[Ed Phillips]

Jay Rusgrove wrote:
> 
> Les
> 
> The receiver setup I'm using here has all the oscillators tied to GPS so there
> is essentially no drift - maybe .02 Hz ... so the signals in the capture below
> are exactly as they appear. I've monitored a number of am station carriers over
> the last couple years and many are, indeed, all over the place. Guess that's the
> beauty of an am detector!
> 
> http://www.advancedreceiver.com/capture/KFI081003.jpg
> 
> Jay Rusgrove, W1VD

	That is indeed an advantage of DSB AM detection.  At least in the old
days the main purpose of precision frequency control was to reduce
interchannel interference and to cause beat notes for weak signals on
the same frequency to be at inaudible frequencies.  I worked as an
illegal part-time operator in a small AM station around 1942 and the
station had a GR frequency deviation meter with red lines at + and - 10
cps from the nominal frequency.  In those good old days we used cps in
memory of Charles Proteus Steinmetz, the EE giant at GE in the early
days of electric power in the US.  The use of Hz to honor Heinrich Hertz
is a much later european introduction.  Hz are fine but I prefer cps,
kcps, mcps, etc.  I'm also an opponent of changine the U.S. over to
metric measure.  Examples of how the latter have been adopted here
including "liter gasoline" which is more expensive than "gallon
gasoline" but not so obvious to the average automobile owner, 750 ml for
wine bottles in place of fifths of a gallon, etc.  Why change something
which works just fine and has for hundreds of years?

	Forgive the latter tirade.  I'm sick and tired of publications whose
editors attempt to use metric by mentioning such things as 2.54 cm
boards in place of 1 inch boards, which really finish out significantly
thinner, or metric dimensions for something like a ball park where it is
obvious that there had been a conversion from square feet or acres,
carried out to many more significant figures than made any sense.

Ed