This is an excellent omen--focusing on SSB transmit issues. W8JI has
been campaigning for years against the prevalence of poor phone signals
on the han bands. The more information made available of a how-to
nature, the better. Of course, only the manufacturers can clean up their
transceivers and QST/ARRL need to encourage them to do so. For example,
the IC-746PRO escaped being roundly criticized for its poor transmit IMD
performance in the QST generally favorable review some years back. Now
that the ARRL lab has very good test equipment for measuring
transmission defects, one hopes that the forthcoming reviews will be
much more critical or poor SSB performance.
The fact that Ten-Tec is putting up the article on its web site suggests
this company is confident of its products. I wonder whether
ICOM/Yaesu/Kenwood will follow suit? The racket on the HF bands during
an SSB contest indicates we have a long way to go before "clean" SSB
signals are the norm. We are approaching (or have reached) the limits on
receiver performance needed by hams; what we do not have is concomitant
transmit performance.
Thanks, Ten-Tec, for taking the lead on this issue
73,
John, W3ULS.
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