Best CW Pitch???

[Bill W4ZV]

N6VL:

 >OK, I know this is personal preference thing. But with the K2, it isn't easy
to change CW pitch on the fly. While the sidetone frequency can be easily
changed, CAL FIL needs to be redone. Many other rigs will allow you to
select the CW pitch or offset on the fly.

         For me this was one nice feature of the TS-930S.  Continuously
adjustable Pitch over a very wide range.  And I share your frustration
with the K2, but simply set mine to 400 and live with it.  If you really
want front panel adjustable Pitch you should consider a K3.

 >I chose 400 Hz for my pitch. Sometimes I wonder if the best pitch varies
between rigs. I know it varies between bands. I can play with the K2 RIT
value and get at least +/- 50 Hz or more of variation from my 400 Hz
preference. Last night I readjusted the KAF2 pots and got the response more
centered around 400 Hz. It had been centered a little lower.

         For me it varies depending on noise, QRM and filter BW.  I adjust
Pitch frequently (TS-930S - continuous, Orion - 10 Hz steps, FT-1000MP -
50 Hz steps, K3 - ?? Hz steps) and prefer being able to set it below
300 Hz at times (only possible with Orion among newer rigs).  If the K2
were a main rig, I would *not* have bought it because of the 400 Hz limit.

 >Last night I was working a CW station on 30 meters just in my noise level.
Usually I have to listen a little lower in pitch, but this time it helped to
listen a little higher. The band conditions seem to dictate the best pitch.

         I like very low pitch (240-270 Hz) for extremely weak signals in white
noise.  I like 300 Hz for normal operating but go to 400-450 Hz in contests
with a reasonably wide bandwidth (6-700 Hz) to catch off-frequency callers.
On a wide quiet band, I will even go to 500 Hz pitch with a very wide
bandwidth to catch callers up to 500 Hz off-frequency (BTW Japanese
stations are much worse than EU for calling off-frequency).

 >That said, I wonder how to best choose a pitch. I've thought of increasing
the pitch up to 420 or even 450 Hz. But I won't be able to return to 400 Hz
without running CAL FIL again, not a fast process. I definitely don't want
to go above 500 Hz. The 600 Hz default is very fatiguing to me and actually
piercing.

 >Again I know this is a personal thing. It really would be neat if the K2
firmware could be modified to accommodate several banks of filter settings
for different needs, such as CW pitches.

         Due to the inherent design of the K2 I doubt that will ever
happen.  Better start saving your money for a K3!

         Finally (***Eric or Wayne***), will first production K3s
have a lower Pitch setting than 300 Hz?  I do hope you will also
consider 10 Hz Pitch steps instead of 50 Hz.

                                 73,  Bill  W4ZV
P.S.  If you want to test your ears on *very* weak signals,
click UK8DAN on the link below.  this was on 160 meters and he
was running only 70 Watts over the polar path to Uzbekistan
(also check out the N2XE weak signal 80m beacon at the bottom):

http://users.vnet.net/btippett/topband_sounds.htm



_______________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Post to: [hidden email]
You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
 http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft   

Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com

[drewko]

On Sat, 29 Sep 2007 08:42:05 -0400, Bill  W4ZV wrote:

>
>         I like very low pitch (240-270 Hz) for extremely weak signals in white
>noise.  I like 300 Hz for normal operating but go to 400-450 Hz in contests
>with a reasonably wide bandwidth (6-700 Hz) to catch off-frequency callers.
>On a wide quiet band, I will even go to 500 Hz pitch with a very wide
>bandwidth to catch callers up to 500 Hz off-frequency (BTW Japanese
>stations are much worse than EU for calling off-frequency).
>

Wow! I find this amazing. I have just never used a pitch that low. I
will have to try it I guess. Seems like I am way higher than normal at
800 Hz. I like a wide filter most of the time also: 2 KHz & 1 KHz most
of the time, seldom dropping to 0.5 or 0.2.

Is a low pitch better for weak signals? I guess I never knew that.

73,
Drew
AF2Z

_______________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Post to: [hidden email]
You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
 http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft   

Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com