“CW bandwidth shuffle” or “Filter? I hardly even knew her!”

Wednesday, July 13, 2016 — I’m still thoroughly enjoying my new-to-me Kenwood TS-690SAT, though I’ve not yet made a contact with it. I was going to take ‘er for a run on CW; however when I connected a key, the sidetone was 800 Hz, which is significantly higher than what I’m used to with my Yaesu FT-2000. I did some research to find out how to change the sidetone frequency, but I found there’s no way to change it from 800 Hz.

There is a menu setting to change the CW pitch during reception (it is also set at 800 Hz). I guess that if I zero beat the other station and then I can use the RIT to monitor at a frequency closer to what I like (more like 700 Hz). I’ve grown accustomed to having a rig that has the versatility of my FT2K. I’m stepping back in time a couple of decades with my TS-690S, hi hi.

The Kenwood lacks a CW filter, and after copying some CW the last few days, I decided I need to add at least one. Last night I found someone selling a 500 Hz CW filter for the 8.8 MHz IF at a bargain price, so I snapped it up. I really want to add a CW filter to the 455 kHz IF, but I have yet to find one priced cheaply enough. If I’m not careful, I will spend more on filters than I did for the rig. I’ll see how the rig does with the filter that’s coming, but I’m still going to watch for the 455 kHz filter. The CW filter should arrive Monday.

I have to figure out a microphone for the Kenwood as well, but I’m sure I have at least one Kenwood 8-pin handmike available. I should also have the Heil Kenwood mic adapter, so I can try one of my dynamic mics.

ICOM IC-746. I have the 746 in place next to my chair in the library, and I’ve come to the conclusion that my longwire antenna must be a direct short to ground. I check the 746 on my inverted vee in the shack and them moved it directly to the library. I heard the usual activity on 75 and 40 meters on the inverted vee, but in the library the bands were dead as a hammer. The only thing I could copy was a couple of very, very weak CW signals and I know there was a load of strong signals — or should have been.

I was going to list my Hallicrafters SX-130 and my BC-348Q receivers on eBay last weekend, but I decided to wait until I had an antenna with which to check them out before listing them. The BC-348Q was fairly deaf when I tried it a week or two ago, and I assumed at the time the rig was simply having some electronic issues. I realize now that the issue isn’t the receiver but the antenna. Tomorrow I plan to shoot a line over a tree and replace the (alleged) antenna with something that I believe will be more effective. I may put the BC-348Q back on the shelf! I love that receiver — when its useful and working well.

73 es CUL de KY4Z SK … dit dit …