Duane,
Sounds Great...........
Jim
K4PV
----- Original Message -----
From: "Duane Grotophorst" <n9dg@yahoo.com>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 19, 2003 10:21 AM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] ORION SO2R CAPABILITY
>
> --- AC5E@aol.com wrote:
> > Personally, I'm more'n a little amused at the
> > thought of my tuning for CQ's
> > on a second band while working a station on the
> > first band. They guys who do
> > that are a whole lot better coordinated than I ever
> > was. And working search
> > and pounce on two bands would be even more of a
> > challenge.
>
> SO2R a challenge?? Not at all. How about SO4R, I do
> that all the time during VHF/UHF contests, I run
> separate "radios" for 50 - 432MHz, all at the same
> time. Many hard core VHF contesters do the exact same
> thing. The other common practice is to park and call
> on a freq and then while listening to your own calling
> frequency be tuning up and down the band +/- 75-100KHz
> with a second RX (or sweep scope). Carl's Dual Pegasus
> mode with full time sub RX spectrum sweep is perfect
> for this.
>
> Granted VHF/UHF contesting is a different environment
> than HF contesting, on HF the task is primarily an
> exercise in separating the individual signals you want
> to work from the many others close by. VHF contesting
> is more about finding the needle (or occasional rail
> spike) in the haystack over a wide range of generally
> quiet frequencies on different bands. There it is
> important to be able to watch large chunks of spectrum
> all the time and quickly. Enter the spectrum sweep,
> perfect for that task, especially if it is done on a
> computer screen. That is an area the Orion shows great
> promise, will have to wait and see what evolves for
> computer control and its spectrum sweep handling.
>
> Now to take it a bit further for 2M you ideally need 2
> radios for SSB/CW alone, one of them attached to a
> highly direction beam and the other to a horizontal
> polarized omni, both of them should have spectrum
> sweep displays. So in this case SO1.5R (for RX
> front-end preservation reasons) for 2M alone. The
> Orion's handling for 2 separate sets of amps and
> accessories (substitute transverters etc. instead)
> looks like a great starting point for achieving this.
>
>
> Then to really expand the VHF/UHF contest station add
> FM to the lower 3 or 4 bands, also add bands 902MHz
> and above which can generally share a common IF radio
> that is switched. Again spectrum sweep is a powerful
> tool for finding signals, very few ops up there can be
> sure of their true operating frequency any closer than
> a few KHz, possibly as much as 25 - 50.
>
> So in total you can actually get to something around
> SO10R!!
>
> 2 - 50Mhz SSB/CW/WSJT
> 2 - 144Mhz SSB/CW/WSJT
> 1 - 146MHz FM
> 1 - 222MHz SSB/CW/WSJT
> 1 - 222MHz FM
> 1 - 432MHz SSB/CW/WSJT
> 1 - 446 MHz FM
> 1 - 902Mhz - 24Ghz or so SSB/CW.
>
> That's a lot of RX sound in the shack, so inherently
> quiet receivers and spectrum sweep displays are a big,
> big plus, I proved that to myself after transitioning
> from a lineup up of generic JA multi-mode radios to
> all transverters driven by Ten Tec radios. I'm not
> nearly as fatigued as I used to be after a full
> weekend of VHF contesting.
>
> So yes there is a madness to my methods ;).
>
> Duane
> N9DG
> EN53bj
>
>
>
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