Return-Path: Received: (qmail 2353 invoked from network); 12 Jun 1999 23:58:57 +0100 Received: from magnus.plus.net.uk (HELO magnus.force9.net) (195.166.128.27) by guiness.force9.net with SMTP; 12 Jun 1999 23:58:57 +0100 Received: (qmail 12590 invoked from network); 12 Jun 1999 23:03:53 -0000 Received: from post.thorcom.com (194.75.130.70) by magnus.plus.net.uk with SMTP; 12 Jun 1999 23:03:53 -0000 Received: from troy.blacksheep.org ([194.75.183.50] ident=root) by post.thorcom.com with esmtp (Exim 2.04 #3) id 10swuc-0002vu-00; Sun, 13 Jun 1999 00:10:06 +0100 Received: (from root@localhost) by troy.blacksheep.org (8.6.12/8.6.12) id WAA22617 for rsgb_lf_group-outgoing; Sat, 12 Jun 1999 22:52:20 GMT Received: from post.thorcom.com (root@post.unica.co.uk [194.75.183.70]) by troy.blacksheep.org (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id WAA22613 for ; Sat, 12 Jun 1999 22:52:17 GMT Received: from tungsten.btinternet.com ([194.73.73.81]) by post.thorcom.com with esmtp (Exim 2.04 #3) id 10swrN-0002rG-00 for rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org; Sun, 13 Jun 1999 00:06:45 +0100 Received: from [212.140.40.131] (helo=default) by tungsten.btinternet.com with smtp (Exim 2.05 #1) id 10swbu-0002ba-00 for rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org; Sat, 12 Jun 1999 23:50:46 +0100 Message-ID: <000201beb526$0d364e00$83288cd4@default> From: "Alan Melia" To: "rsgb_lf_group" Subject: LF: Disappearing 'dits' Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 23:47:40 +0100 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/html; charset=windows-1252 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3110.5 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106 Sender: Precedence: bulk Reply-To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org Content-transfer-encoding: 8bit

Hi After listening to some weak (to me) stations on 136 this morning it occured to me that I was getting a solid, well above the noise dash, but the dits were not at the same peak strength. Noise was fairly low at the time, so it was not being carved up by static. It occurs to me that it may be that some keyers, or even some 'fists', are producing very shorts dots even at the relatively easy speeds used on 136. Can it be that the Q's of aerials and tuning are such that the TX is not rising to full power during a 'dit'?? I find that a bit hard to believe. I do know that when I was learnimg my morse thanks to an old PO Telegraphist up in Liverpool with a G3K call. He used to say that 'you had to send real SOLID dots on old long trans-oceanic cables' otherwise he reckoned they would not get to the other end! I wonder whether this is a lesson for us ...its not so much the slowing down that helps copy on a weak signal so much as the SOLID dot that the slower more deliberate transmission gives. Being basically lazy and not having been an HF morse user I can't express an opinion either way. It would certainly be interesting to know what the tx rise-time (or maybe the aerial current rise-time) actually was with some of your fairly high Q aerials.

Cheers de Alan G3NYK