on frequency?

[bob85]

how do you guys check your frequency?, my buddy's here are always arguing whos on and who aint, we argue about as little as 20hz on ssb, most of us use hf gear including icom pro3's ant ft1000mp mk5's and everybody thinks that because its expensive and new its bang on but i say not so they are rarely set correct from the factory, i bought an off air standard to check my 9 digit racal counter which some thought needed callibrating, http://www.qk99.dial.pipex.com/product3.html its not the last word in accuracy but its way more accurate than any hf set and after 45 minutes warmup it confirmed that my counter was only reading 0.3hz high and my radio was 9 hz plus and minus a few hz as it cycles the crystal oven, i was pleasantly surprised how good my old racal counter was which after about 20 minutes is never more than 0.1hz off true frequency and 90% of the time it reads dead on, i also noticed that all the radios without an oven drift up and down noticeably as they get on the key then sit listening for a while. my callibration has been verified with a gps based standard and they agree exactly to 10 digits at least, you will say why bother but when everybody thinks they are right based on nothing more than the cost of their radio its nice to know you can be closer than 10 hz whenever you choose to be.

 

[Mudfoot]

Well?

 

[camaro1]

i go to this remote receiver site when dx is rollin, enter in a usb or lsb freq and do a test 1,2,3,4,5 and see how i sound on the other end. i adjusted my anytone at-5555 doing this and everyone says it sounds great, the at-5555 and 980ssb both are on freq from the time i turn them on till whenever.


Newport, Oregon Remote S-Meter

 

[Mudfoot]

Interesting....

 

[bob85]

well what??

Well?

 

[Mudfoot]

My "well?" got this old post bumped up with some answers.

Some interesting ones at that.

Nothing sinister...

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Use WWV to calibrate the internal oscillator and go from there. I used to have to monitor four AM stations once a day and do frequency checks down to the last Hertz as we were only allowed to be off freq. by a paltry 10 Hz.The trick was to zero beat a signal from an oscillator against the transmitter signal while watching the RX signal meter. The oscillator was connected to a calibrated freq. counter. As true zero beat was approached the signal meter would start wavering up and down at the same rate as the difference between the RX signal and the output of the oscillator. When the meter sloooowly wavered about once per second you knew you were only about 1 Hz off and when the signal peaked and stayed there it was exactly the same. A look at the counter told me what freq. the transmitter was on. All this was done from the studio with transmitters as far away as 70 miles. You can calibrate a frequency counter this same way using a signal from WWV or your country's equivalent time standard station and then use the counter to check your radio. there is no sense at all comparing amateur radio readouts as they will vary from unit to unit based on allowable tolerances. A $15,000 radio may be no more accurate than the readout on an FT-857.

 

[RatsoW8]

I guess this is why every HF rig I've ever owned has an RIT control. I don't think I've ever informed another ham they were off frequency over a few Hz nor have I ever been told that I was. Now..listen in on a channelized CB radio on SSB and you'll hear what being off frequency is really all about.

 

[Beetle]

There is no sense at all comparing amateur radio readouts as they will vary from unit to unit based on allowable tolerances. A $15,000 radio may be no more accurate than the readout on an FT-857.

Exactly. Digital readouts are a lot more PRECISE than analog readouts, but not necessarily any more ACCURATE. Two very different words.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Exactly. Digital readouts are a lot more PRECISE than analog readouts, but not necessarily any more ACCURATE. Two very different words.

EXACTLY. Unfortunately most people confuse the two terms and think resolution is the same thing as accuracy. A display may read 14.195.000 MHz but the radio may very well be on 14.194.807 MHz. It is unbelievable some of the conversions I have heard by some OF's talking about someone being 20 Hertz off freq (and claiming it is really noticeable) just because his readout is different. That's an ego thing that screams "Of course it's you. How could I possibly be in the wrong".

 

[Mudfoot]

When the "ego" dude is behind a $5000+ rig, it's just that much worse.