In article .com,
"Joe Analssandrini" wrote:

Hello.

My terminology may have been confusing and hard to understand. What I
meant was that the pitch of a sustained musical note will change while
using the Drake synchronous circuit. This happens when the signal is
subject to fading and the circuit attempts to maintain lock. It is most
noticeable on musical shows, naturally. The note sounds as though it's
being lowered a semitone or sometimes even more - in other words, the
music sounds as if it's going a bit flat or "sour."

Last night, I listened to VOR's "Jazz Show" on the Satellit 800 instead
of the AR7030 Plus. Naturally, during the show, the phenomenon never
occured at all. However, when, at 0258, I switched frequencies (from
9665 kHz to 9860 kHz), and VOR was broadcasting their interval signal
(The Great Gate of Kiev), you could hear the "note-flattening" effect
very easily! And, as I said, this sort of thing never occurs with the
AR7030 Plus.

I noticed this "warbling" (probably a bad term but I don't know what
else to call it) almost as soon as I bought the set back in 2000. When
I had occasion to call Drake, I queried their technician about it and
he said that performance was normal. A couple of years later, when I
had occasion to send the set to Drake for adjustment and repair, I
asked the technician if this could be corrected. He said Drake was
well-aware of the phenomenon but that it was inherent in the design of
their circuit. He told me most people do not notice it but those with
"perfect pitch" (something with which I have been blessed) will hear
it.

To make myself as clear as I know how, I would rate the Drake
synchronous detection circuit as 4 5/8 "stars" out of 5 and AOR's as 4
7/8 out of 5. (The fault with AOR's sync circuit is the split-second
muting which occurs whenever the sync is engaged and you re-tune,
either with the knob or with the remote control. There is NO muting at
all when tuning or re-tuning via the RxWINGS program so, at least for
me, the point is generally moot.)

In any case, it is my opinion that during actual listening, the AOR
AR7030 Plus' synchronous detection circuit is "superb" and the Drake
circuit is "merely" excellent.

I can (and do!) live with both.

I don't have perfect pitch so I guess I have not heard the effect you
noted. I'm trying to understand your example so I can hear it. Are you
saying that on the voice of Russia Interval signal itself one of the
notes is flat and only the one note? If that is the case is that a high
or low note? I'll have to listen to both radios to see if I can hear the
difference. Even though I don't have the perfect pitch ability I should
be able to hear this as a difference between the radios but if you have
more information maybe I can't hear the effect.

Both radios have selectable filters and passband tuning that shape the
sound. Usually I don't hear any tonal effects due to the sync but I can
easily hear tonal differences due to:
1. Tuning the VCO from right on to slightly off frequency.
2. Filter selection.
3. Passband tuning.
4. Audio tone controls.
5. Notch filter.

Generally how the audio sounds is mostly affected by the filter and
passband tuning, which I fiddle with to get the best high frequency
response depending on conditions. I guess I would be surprised that a
change in the audio would result from using the sync on the Drake and
that something else is causing it like the filter response not being
flat on the Drake or the way the operator controls are adjusted.

Maybe something I can listen to that is more repetitive like the tones
on WWV. Do you hear a difference there?

--
Telamon
Ventura, California