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This is hard to answer without seeing the actual setup, but there are a few things you can try.
High Noise Level:
1) Listen on the offending band, and observe the background noise level with your S-meter.
2) Temporarily disconnect your antenna – your noise level should drop way down close to an S-meter S1 level. (try to prove the noise is not being generated by the radio)
3) Reconnect the antenna, the high noise level should return. (make sure the connection is good and secure).
4) Turn OFF the built-in Preamp and turn on the built in Attenuator. The noise level should be greatly reduced. Goal – don’t overdrive the front end of the radio with strong signal or background noise level. Don’t be afraid to use the attenuator or to adjust the front end gain controls when needed. If you saturate or overload the DSP A/D converter stage, the radio will struggle with the signal processing function. Using attenuation will moderate the DSP levels and help improve the signal processing.
5) Tune around the band and look for a few signals to see that all is working ok.
6) Try using a somewhat narrower Bandpass Filter selection. When you reduce the filter bandwidth by half, the noise floor will also drop by half. Assuming your listening to SSB, you may not have too many workable selections as you will need a bandwidth of about 2.4 kHz to recover all the intelligible audio components. (You can narrow it much more for CW operation but a voice signal will require more bandwidth.
7) Experiment with the receiver RF Gain knob. When adjusted correctly it can help improve the signal quality by establishing a RX threshold that improves weak signal readability.
8) You may also have a local noise source that is generating high levels of noise from time to time. This is harder to find and the spectral distribution of such noise sources is usually rather broadband and would be expected to affect more than one band. Consider possible noise sources (plasma TV, LED light bulbs, WALL WARTS). Wall warts or small AC to DC power supplies usually used to run small devices such as recharge batteries or charge your cell phone or cordless screwdriver. These often include a switching stage voltage regulator which can be great noise sources. Try hunting for local noise sources using a small AM transistor radio tuned to a blank frequency on the AM dial.
Transmitter issues:
You stated you added a footswitch, headset and microphone. You always want to be suspicious of any recent changes that you have made to your setup. Try using the handheld mic that came with the radio. You now it works so try the original equipment and see if you still have the problem. Does the Power Out meter level bounce when you speak into the microphone? It should.
1) Verify that you are in SSB mode and have not accidentally selected another mode such as CW or FM mode.
2) Check the Mic gain settings – verify it is not set too low or too high.
3)Try monitoring your signal with another receiver with NO ANTENNA ATTACHED – be careful not to overload or damage that receiver. (Note: a few HTs can actually tune and demodulate your HF signals (my Kenwood TH-F6 can receive HF CW and SSB signals).
Well hopefully, that will give you a couple of things to try. Please share any results you make as that may help others with a similar problem.
Thanks Bernie, sounds like a great tool for Apple iPhone owners. The those with other devices that can be “online” and surf the web, the youtube presentations sound with the Search phrase “Learn to Read Morse” will yield several sample speeds:
For a slightly different approach, search for “Moby Dick Morse” and find segments of the book displayed on the screen at various playback speeds. The process here works somewhat different. You see what will be sent and follow along in your head (knowing what the next letter, number or punctuation symbol will be. Here is Moby Dick at 10WPM…
Almost any device with a web browser should allow those without an iPhone to have easy access to help and improve their skills. Also any device that can play the MP3 files from the K7QO CD can store and play them off-line. I suggest keeping the list of MP3 files small and perhaps starting with 040.mp3 (two letter words) or leter files in the series.
Also, the ARRL practice sessions can be downloaded or played online as well, so there are lots of practice options.
http://www.arrl.org/code-practice-files
Also, while trying to search the ARRL site for a link to the W1AW files, I stumbled upon this interesting sounding link:
http://www.arrl.org/forum/topics/view/1054%60
It’s an App called CODEMAN and it’s available for Apple iPads, iPhones and Android devices. Note, a quick search on the ARRL page will provide lots more, including a link to someone who translates news broadcasts into CW streaming. Ideas that can help with almost any smart device.
Thanks again for sharing as it forced me to add some additional ideas for us non iPhone folks.
NOTE: You may need to CUT and PASTE some of the links into your Browser to be able to view them. All of the links are valid, but the club webpage attempts to open the links thru a slideshow window that doesn’t always seem to work successfully with all of the videos.
One step I forgot to add:
1) when you know what you want to send, just spell it out directly in Morse and avoid even thinking about what the letter your sending will be… you’ll instantly know what it is immediately after you have sent it.
The reality, your just spelling your words out using an alternate alphabet of Morse Rhythm characters. Sort of like using a different set of FONTS on your computer but still using the same keyboard keys to enter the text.
Hope my explanation makes some sense to you. Be at one with the Morse Code Rhythms.
Mike 🙂
Correction… I forgot to regenerate the PDF file after performing a quick document cleanup… Use this one instead.
Paddle selection is really a personal choice. Just like choosing the type of car or truck you want to buy. Many factors must be considered.
Cost, construction, performance, style, special design features, operating feel, etc. and your long term usage.
Good operation is important even for low cost solutions. Assuming you can play with the key you might try “wiggling” each paddle to see how much play they exhibit and can you live with that. I looked at one low cost key at the ARRL Boxboro convention and was disappointed at its sloppy construction. Mechanical slop was evidenced when wiggling the paddle side to side, up and down and when slightly rotating the paddle arm. I looked to see if the problem was simple alignment error or loose hardware.
Some good designs can also feel bad if they are not properly adjusted. Many people may have examined and played with a display model or the factory may not have been too meticulous in its setup before packaging it for delivery.
As Fred noted, The Bengali keys are excellent in their quality and function. But other models will work as well and might be a good intermediary step. Consider their intended usage… you usually wouldn’t want ot take a Bengali out in the field and risk scratching a fine finish or contaminating the mechanical bearings and contacts.
I believe a song written by Three-Dog-Night went: “One is the Lowliest number that you’ll ever do..” (Sorry if your unfamiliar: -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22QYriWAF-U ).
So perhaps at least a couple of keys is a good long term solution. Keep the best one at home and use the lower cost one for more casual or general use or portable operations. Besides, you be able to say you have a key collection.The Chuck Adams – K7QO CD contains a good document on paddle keys that may offer some good suggestions for those learning the code and anxious to get started. Several students have asked about keys and Chuck’s write-up may be very helpful. Some students have already purchased a key, some have fabricated something to practice with. For most of us, we’ll own at least a couple during our lifetime.
I just did a quick listen to the N1FD segment on the Podcast… Fred’s interview starts just about 43 minutes 15 seconds into the audio stream.
Great club interest story that will inspire other clubs and perhaps draw more local interest and membership to our club. The club is gaining lots of good publicity.