KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

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Operating notes: CW percent sign, a silver lining?, IF tap for boat anchors?

Posted: 15 Mar 2020 09:13 AM PDT
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kb6nu...m_medium=email


A couple of days ago, G0POT Tweeted:


Michael (GØPOT)Â*@DrOrthogonal

If you’ve ever sent the % sign in CW did you use the letter ‘o’ (o/o) or
zeros (0/0)? The latter seems longer but is what I’ve seen documented in a
few places.

Personally, I just send PCT to denote that a number is a percentage of
something, and Ive never had anyone ask for a repeat or clarification. But,
this made me curious as to what Recommendation ITU-R M.1677-1 (10/2009),
International Morse code, has to say about this. The relevant bit is
Section 3.3:

3.3 Percentage or per thousand sign

3.3.1 To indicate the signal % or ‰, the figure 0, the fraction bar and
the figures 0 or 00 shall be transmitted successively (i.e. 0/0, 0/00).

3.3.2 A whole number, a fractional number, or a fraction, followed by a %
or ‰ sign, shall be transmitted by joining up the whole number, the
fraction number, or the fraction to the % or ‰ by a single hyphen.
Examples: For 2%, transmit 2-0/0, and not 20/0. For 41/2‰, transmit
4-1/2-0/00, and not 41/20/00.

So, for all you purists outÂ* there, now you know. It still seems easier
just to send PCT, though.
A silver lining?

Perhaps one good thing about the COVID-19 (coronavirus) epidemic is that
there seems to be more activity on the ham bands. Last night and Friday
night it was easy to make a contact, and there seemed to be more signals on
the panadapter than usual. On reddit/r/amateurradio, one ham wrote:

One good thing about the coronavirus in Europe , is that FT8 is absolutely
buzzing right now with Italians, French, Germans, and Spanish. 100 contacts
so far. Normally make about 30!

Here in Ann Arbor, weve started a daily shut-in net on the ARROW 2m
repeater (146.96 MHz). Several guys have committed to being on the repeater
from 7 pm to 8 pm nightly, and more often generally.
IF tap for boat anchors

A couple of days ago, I was chatting with a guy on 40m who happened to be a
vintage radio fan. When I mentioned that I was using a Flex 6400, he said
that hed love to have a panadapter, but he doesnt want to give up his
vintage radios. What hed really like, he said, was an IF tap for his older
gear, something like the IF tap that you can get for theFT-450D.

That seems doable to me. Does anyone out there know of such a device for
older tube gear?

The post Operating notes: CW percent sign, a silver lining?, IF tap for
boat anchors? appeared first on KB6NUs Ham Radio Blog.