>
> As a QSK convert (long before acquiring any T-T radio), it's hard to
> look back into darkness :-)
> Grant/NQ5T
> You are seeing things through your own crystal ball,
> <long snip> I hope this post
> helps the non-contesting operators understand why some operators
want
> to do things a bit differently.
Thanks for the description. I don't think that's ever really been the issue -
- that the rest of are missing the point if we are not experienced contest
operators, etc., running 2 radios, talking on the phone, making coffee,
and blogging all at once :-)
We already know (or have been told) that the PTT business is baked in
hardware.
There seem to be two distinct but related issues. The one that seemed
to reach the highest termperatures was primarily related to saving QSK
relays in amps. Several suggestions have been offered which I think deal
with that variant of the issue effectively, and they're simple enough that
extending them to complex control arrangements ought not be terribly
difficult.
The second is the desire to mute the receiver, except possibly for
sidetone (?), during a CW transmission, with no significant delay at the
turnover from Tx to Rx. And I do appreciate that if you're trying to hunt
for multipliers in one ear, and are hearing inter element or even inter
character band noise in the other it could be distracting. It may be that
not everyone would find it so, but I can't walk and chew gum at the same
time, and probably would. By the same token, even sidetone with no
noise could be distracting.
This very issue (in a different context, obviously) was being discussed in
an interview with an experimental neurologist on NPR this afternoon --
that as good as the brain seems at multi-tasking, it does not do it
efficiently when the same neural region(s) is being used for concurrent
tasks.
Something that is missing (for me) on most current production
transceivers is an external RECEIVER MUTE connection -- separate
from any PTT control. This would add a lot of flexibility in a multi-box
station setup. There are times I'd like to use the Orion receiver -- as one
example -- with a different transmitter, and be able to mute it
automatically during transmit by some means other than just relay
switching the speaker connection to an 8 ohm load.
If it isn't possible to separate PTT from CW keying, perhaps it's possible
to include a receiver mute function that can be driven by an external
gate/relay/whatever (??). That might provide a way to skin both cats at
once .. just a thought.
Grant/NQ5T
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