CW Monitoring

[David Bunte]

A friend is having an issue that I cannot resolve.  I maintain the station
for an elderly friend who prefers CW, and often operates at about 40 wpm.
A while back he told me that his "E"s were too short, and hoped I could
change the timing or weighting, or whatever to "fix them".  When I hear him
on the air, I thought they sounded perfect... he swears that they used to
be, but no longer are.

I went over and verified that the weight setting on his K3 was set as mine
was, and that his microHAM keyer was set as mine was as well.

He still said that the letter "E" was way too short.  Today I went over to
his QTH again.  I sent some CW at 40 wpm and agreed with him that the
letter "E" seemed short... I listened carefully at a variety of speeds, and
down around 20 or 30 wpm all sounded good to both of us.  I had no
instruments to verify what I was hearing, but it 'seemed' to me that up
around 40 wpm the leading dit of any character was a bit short.  I admit, I
am not a 40 wpm guy, but that is how it sounded to me.

I then went into the next room, where he has a different station setup,
where I selected NO antenna, turned the RF gain way down, and tuned that
rig to the same freq as his K3.  I then had him transmit at 0.1 watt from
the K3.  To my ear the CW I was hearing on the other radio was perfect.  We
then traded places, and I transmitted while he listened.  I transmitted
from 40 up to 50 wpm, and he agreed that the CW coming from the K3 was
"perfect"... but at 40 wpm the monitor signal from the K3 does not sound
perfect.  He said that it did sound perfect until a couple of months ago.

Assuming that it, in fact, does now sound different that when I first setup
the station for him, I have no idea what may have changed, or what to do
about it.  As I indicated, I cannot quantify the change, but I do believe
that it is different.  I am now home and my K3, with all the keying
settings the same as his, and with my microHAM keyer set the same as his,
sounds "perfect" at 40 wpm.

I started to wonder if a component in the monitor circuit may have changed
value, resulting in a truncation of the sound of that first dit.

I want to help my friend, but I have NO idea what to try next.

Dave - K9FN
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[drewko]

If you want to quantify the CW element lengths and timing as they appear
in the sidetone audio try an app called Precision CW Fistcheck. It
displays a graphical representation of the individual code elements.

73,
Drew
AF2Z


On 09/23/15 15:10, David Bunte wrote:

> A friend is having an issue that I cannot resolve.  I maintain the station
> for an elderly friend who prefers CW, and often operates at about 40 wpm.
> A while back he told me that his "E"s were too short, and hoped I could
> change the timing or weighting, or whatever to "fix them".  When I hear him
> on the air, I thought they sounded perfect... he swears that they used to
> be, but no longer are.
>
> I went over and verified that the weight setting on his K3 was set as mine
> was, and that his microHAM keyer was set as mine was as well.
>
> He still said that the letter "E" was way too short.  Today I went over to
> his QTH again.  I sent some CW at 40 wpm and agreed with him that the
> letter "E" seemed short... I listened carefully at a variety of speeds, and
> down around 20 or 30 wpm all sounded good to both of us.  I had no
> instruments to verify what I was hearing, but it 'seemed' to me that up
> around 40 wpm the leading dit of any character was a bit short.  I admit, I
> am not a 40 wpm guy, but that is how it sounded to me.
>
> I then went into the next room, where he has a different station setup,
> where I selected NO antenna, turned the RF gain way down, and tuned that
> rig to the same freq as his K3.  I then had him transmit at 0.1 watt from
> the K3.  To my ear the CW I was hearing on the other radio was perfect.  We
> then traded places, and I transmitted while he listened.  I transmitted
> from 40 up to 50 wpm, and he agreed that the CW coming from the K3 was
> "perfect"... but at 40 wpm the monitor signal from the K3 does not sound
> perfect.  He said that it did sound perfect until a couple of months ago.
>
> Assuming that it, in fact, does now sound different that when I first setup
> the station for him, I have no idea what may have changed, or what to do
> about it.  As I indicated, I cannot quantify the change, but I do believe
> that it is different.  I am now home and my K3, with all the keying
> settings the same as his, and with my microHAM keyer set the same as his,
> sounds "perfect" at 40 wpm.
>
> I started to wonder if a component in the monitor circuit may have changed
> value, resulting in a truncation of the sound of that first dit.
>
> I want to help my friend, but I have NO idea what to try next.
>
> Dave - K9FN

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