I'm listening on 75 meters while I'm using the laptop and cruising eBay (looking for some spare earbuds, not ham gear), and I'm reminded of an old QST column from years ago titled “Your Novice accent.”
The article was advice to newly licensed Novices about how to not sound quite so “new” while operating on the air. I'm listening to some fairly new hams on 75 compare notes, and their “accents” are showing.
Ham A has a terrible signal, with RF all over his signal. He's been switching back and forth between antennas, convinced that his problem is the antennas. The truth is that he has RF on both antennas, its just worse on one of the two.
His friend in the QSO says the guy's signal sounds “robotic”, and can't identify that its RF on his signal. The guy keeps guessing at the problem he's hearing on his friend's signal; he's had him turn the audio processor on and off; he's had him turn the AGC on fast, medium and slow; he's had him try it on VOX; and he's told him its probably just band conditions.
The guy with RF said he's already had a problem with RF getting back into one of his Kenwood rigs and messing it up. But he's convinced the problem is with his antennas, though he noted that “nothing in the shack is grounded.”
Interesting to note that he's not the only one with RF on his signal on this frequency. They're calling their audio “too hot”, but its really just RF. These guys say they don't run 75 normally, so they're trying to get their stations lined out. I can identify with that.
A new guy has stopped by the roundtable, and is telling them with his success troubleshooting RF; unfortunately he has signficant RF on his signal too (irony of ironies!).
I guess it pays to talk to a variety of people when you're trying to determine how well your rig is working!