Bill W5WVO wrote:
This is probably slightly OT, but Ed's and Jim's comments prompt me to take
this thread further.
I can add my agreement to the generally poor state of the transmitters of a
few of the top contest operators on 6 meters during the recent ARRL contest.
Some of them you could literally hear 20 kHz away on either side -- with the
NB off, the preamp bypassed, and the attenuator kicked in to boot. Of
course, this is just plain unacceptable technically, but more to the point,
it is very rude and not in keeping with long-standing amateur traditions of
technical excellence.
Now, I've been told a couple times times that I was splattering, and in all
cases it was found to be untrue, as reported by other stations on the
frequency who were using correctly adjusted receivers and confirmed I was
about 2.4 kHz wide. (The complaining station having his noise blanker
enabled is the most usual culprit, though you would think all hams would
know about this and check for it before opening their mouths.)
A feature of contesting is the larger percentage of guest operators who
are totally unfamiliar with the equipment they're using. An additional
feature of VHF contesting is the larger number of temporary hilltop
stations, which are assembled for the weekend and haven't been properly
run-in.
Also, the demands for clean signals are greater at VHF, because the
strong signals are stronger than at HF, and weak signals are weaker.
As someone who has been involved with clean signals on VHF/UHF for a
very long time, I don't think the problem has become significantly worse
in recent years. It can happen at any time, because every individual has
to learn - and some people never will.
This last group is a nightmare for responsible 'station engineers' who
are trying their best to put out a clean signal for the whole
24/48hours. Some people simply cannot be trusted to leave the MIC and
PWR controls alone. (Still, everything has its compensations: such
people are also the least likely to notice that those controls have been
disconnected, and replaced by trimpots behind the panel :-)
When you have done your technical due-dilligence on the receive end and you
know for a fact that another station is splattering badly and QRMing you and
a lot of other people... How do you tell him? Or do you?
Yes, you do tell him. The line that sometimes works is "I'm afraid you
have a problem: your signal is a lot broader than others of the same
strength. Can I help you to do some tests?"
I hate creating bad
feelings on the air, and the usual rejoinder when I've actually tried this
is angry defensiveness and sometimes even abusiveness.
The defensiveness comes from not having any clue how to fix the problem
and the feeling that they have to press on with making QSOs. A contest
is absolutely the worst time to be setting up the station for a clean
signal, because the tests require time, patience and a quiet band.
On the other hand, the information has been available for a very long
time:
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek/cleansig/no-splat.htm
If you do complain during a contest, you need to be prepared to commit
some of your own time to helping fix the problem. You may also need to
understand the other station's setup much better than the guy who's
sitting there looking at it!
Coming back on-topic, a feature for the K3 that could be very helpful in
setting RF output and compression levels would be a peak-holding RF
output meter (for SSB only, just like the CONFIG: SMTR PK option). Or is
it already there and I missed it?
--
73 from Ian GM3SEK
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek
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