[TenTec] RFI and Orion Mic connector - bad info

["Rob Atkinson, K5UJ" <k5uj@hotmail.com>]

There have been a few comments along the lines of "I run <really high QRO 
watts> and I have never had any RF problems."   Some or all of you may be 
right but I would like to point out that
there are many hams out there who have RF in their tx audio and don't know 
it.  It's bad enough to cause distortion but not completely wreck 
intellegibility.  Unless you have done something to be very sure, such as 
have someone who knows what he's doing and will give you the straight dope, 
listen to you at full power on all the bands you operate on, who is located 
far enough away to not be overloaded, or employed some other method, you 
don't know.  Not ever having anyone in a qso complain about RF on your audio 
isn't enough.  I have read the mail on a bunch of QSOs on HF where ham A, 
who has some distortion asks ham B how his signal is and ham B, out of 
ignorance, or wanting to be nice, or who knows what else, tells A he sounds 
great.  Maybe B thinks anyone he can understand sounds great.  I always tell 
people, what they sound like, with the bark off, within my ability.  It's 
also important to be prepared to help them too.  They may get mad because 
they don't want to hear bad news.  That's their problem.

They may also get mad because of bewilderment.  RF can be weird stuff to the 
nonprofessional.  I got the RF bad news when I first got on the air from a 
good friend who didn't care about being nice.  He did me a great favor.  I 
had a sinking feeling, like this was going to be one of those problems, like 
a glitch in my car engine that would never get fixed by anyone until I got a 
new car.  I figured this strange RF in audio bug would stay with me until I 
moved or God decided I'd had enough after 10 years and lightning would hit a 
power pole and my weird problem would suddenly go away after some bizarre 
flash.  The first thing you have to do with a new problem is get past the 
bewilderment by getting information.  This reflector, googling on internet, 
ARRL handbook, ARRL RFI book, Radioworks booklet W4THU gives with his line 
isolators has good stuff in it.  Then you have to take general information 
and apply it to your specific situation and filter out things that don't 
apply.  Then you are ready to experiment and try things after picking what 
seems to be the most promising avenue from your information.  No two ham 
stations are alike.  No one can tell you exactly what to do without a site 
visit.  Have a positive attitude.  Station building and fixing things like 
this are a part of the hobby just like operating.   I learned a lot I could 
apply to other situations from the reading I did to solve the RF in audio 
problem.  I will repeat what I wrote somewhere else:  Many people do not 
give themselves enough credit for successfully setting up a properly 
functioning ham station.  Think about it, a HF station:

A. not only receives, but
B. transmits,
C. not on just one frequency or one band, but
D. on many bands across the HF spectrum.

And all this from a site that was not constructed with this in mind (your 
house or apartment).  That's actually not a trivial thing.  People who don't 
appreciate this (especially new hams) give up and quit when things don't 
work perfectly right out of the boxes.  This isn't like setting up a PC or 
stereo.  They need to be taught the significance of what it means to set up 
a _radio_ station.  I think in some ways what hams do is more difficult than 
setting up a commercial MW broadcast site that only transmits, on one 
frequency, from a site designed from the ground up with this in mind (but 
broadcasters do have a number of other problems to deal with).

enough rambling
Rob/K5UJ

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