Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017 — Last night I wanted to get my venerable old Heathkit HW-16 on the air — even if just for a CW net — but the net time slipped up on me and it was about 15 minutes prior to the start of the net. Drat! I walk in the shack and detect the smell of heated dust in the air — what did I leave on?
Fortunately I found that I left the shack Sunday night and did not turn off the HW-16, which basically means the rig had warmed up to operating temperature about 22 hours earlier, and if she’s ever going to be stable, now’s the time. (Editor’s note: Actually, the HW-16 with the HG-10B VFO is relatively stable once warmed up; its the chirp that doesn’t go away. There’s just a touch of chirp on 80 and 40, its much more pronounced on 15 M).
I switched the FT-2000 on so I could monitor the net frequency (I wanted to know when the NCS came on frequency so I could hunt him down on the HW-16). The HW-16’s tuning dial is marked in 5kHz steps, and the closer you get to the far ends of the tuning range, the less accurate the dial becomes (I admit its kind of odd to even use the term “accuracy” in the same sentence with “5 kHz steps” hi hi). Fortunately it was pretty dang close. The band was busy; the HW-16’s CW filtering help a lot, but my Datong FL-3 is the bee’s knees of audio filters. By the time stations began checking in, I had the NCS tuned in with about a 400 Hz filter. Unfortunately, I forgot one thing — the sidetone.
The sidetone — an awful screeching racket somewhere about 1,000 Hertz generated courtesy of a neon bulb — was missing when I started transmitting. Huh? What? Who took it? Another failure in my Benton Harbor rig? Or operator error?
If you guessed operator error, you were correct.
I realized that my wonderful Datong FL-3 was doing a great job filtering the receive audio — it was also filtering out my sidetone! I haven’t sent CW without a sidetone since my earliest days as a ham running “Old Ironsides,” my Hallicrafters SR-150. Thankfully my transmission was just a traffic net check in; as long the NCS could get my call I was probably OK, though I probably sent something like: “DE KY&Z, GE hizzup gremebelpot dar dar bumblespigot narf goobah BT K.” NCS recognized my call and acknowledged me. I flipped off the Datong for good measure for the duration of the net.
My subsequent transmissions had sufficient sidetone, though the NCS could probably say it didn’t improve my sending much. I sent him an email and told him I was helping the net practice for emergency conditions. If they could copy my sidetone-free sending, they deserve a certificate acknowledging their copying ability, the KY4Z QLF AWARD. To apply, simply send your uncorrected, as-received copy of my sending to my QRZ address, and write your information on the back of a crisp, unmarked $20 bill. Operators are standing by.
EPILOGUE. All seriousness aside, I plan to put the HW-16 on the air more this winter. I need to find the mod to do something about that sidetone though, its pretty nasty.
73 ES hizabuck errp errp bloogly bug SKeeo …. blit zoppz