Look into the Maillard Reaction: https://www.tasteofhome.com/article...-always-preheat-the-oven-to-350-when-we-bake/ When I pick a frequency to call CQ on, the first priority is that it is not in use. The second priority is that it has a few zeroes after it. It's just easier to scribble 10.117 for the (paper) log entry instead of 10.1176543. If I answer someone's CW CQ, I'll attempt to match their frequency by ear and then round the log entry to the nearest Khz.
Those of us who BBQ at 190F know that Maillard arrives well below 350F. Few of us who BBQ or operate CW have readouts to 0.3 (Hz or F).
Yeah, that Maillard guy showed up here once to invite me to church, but he waited til I was cooking filets. Funny, you can get two guys calling CQ on the same frequency, but try getting everybody on a cw net to QNZ.
That principle is "two nuts don't make a net." On my nets, there's usually only one nut who won't QNZ. Maybe that's a good sign.
Two points - 1) My first radio was a MTR-4B, which does not provide a "Spot" function. All I could do was tune until the signal matched the sidetone to try to zero-beat. It never occurred to me that the other station was off-frequency. The KX3 has several ways to zero-beat. One is to manually tune until you think the signal matches your sidetone. The second is to use the SPOT button with the CWT tuning aid turned off and then tune until the two pitches match, then turn off SPOT. The third is to tap the SPOT button with CWT on, which is an "Auto SPOT" as it adjusts the VFO A frequency for a match. Auto SPOT doesn't work with weak or multiple signals, but otherwise it is really neat. I thought it was standard practice to zero-beat. Am I unusual for reading the manual and trying to do this correctly? 2) Related to logging, do the "double-blind" algorithms used by LoTW and QRZ look at frequency? That is, if I log and upload a QSO on 40m as 7.030, does that fail to match the other station's logged 7.0305? I thought the match was callsign, band, mode and a time window.
Update - I learned that, once you have used SPOT to zero-beat and the other station drifts off, it is not a smart move to tap SPOT again. I think that, if you are reasonably sure his signal drifted, you are supposed to use RIT to recover his signal. If you do anything which changes your transmit frequency, you can "chase" each other with successive tuning corrections. I'm new at all of this, and I'm trying to understand.
That is not an unreasonable approach. On the other hand who or which authority is doing the "supposing?" If the pitch of the other signal changes, there could be one or two drifters. Ditto if your bandwidth is very narrow and the other signal disappears. Communicate about it. You should have a good idea of how stable your own rig is. You can go from there.
That makes sense. First QSO for me long enough to experience what looked like frequency drift. Thanks.
I'm primarily cw. Normally use a FTdx3000, but also a KX3. Both seem pretty frequency stable, but sometimes I wonder. It is reassuring to see the digital readout show .000 and see a signal that is centered on the little spotting indicator on either rig. For aging ears with ear noise, it's a great help. When I started, I had 3 ft243? surplus crystals and a DX-40. A Hallicrafters receiver that was second hand and was general coverage. There was no zero beat and we did fine. When I started this thread, I had noticed several multiple CQs on .000 frequencies. Usually these things straighten themselves out fairly quickly, but sometimes they don't. Then you have 4 signals which may or not be zero beat. Sometimes this hobby is downright humorous, when you take time to just listen around. We would do better to just act like we had non-digital readouts. Maybe there would not be so much unintended QRM. Stick a fork in it. I'm done.
