I was tuning around on 40 CW a couple of nights ago and heard a guy calling 
CQ.  I listened for a couple of minutes until a very weak W8 answered the W5 
calling CQ.  The W8 wasn't Q5 copy.  I like hearing where people are from so 
I figured I'd listen long enough just to see where the W5 was from.  When he 
turned it back to the W8, I heard the W8 say he was QRP.  Since I ran QRP 
for 18 months back in 76 and 77, I have a fondness for QRP operators so I 
listened because I wanted to find out how much power the QRP station was 
running.  As I said, he wasn't Q5 so I wasn't too sure I could copy well 
enough to hear his power level.  Just then, a high speed CW operator in 
Fresno  California, who normally works a friend of his in Florida, began 
calling his friend, W4NPX, on 7032.00 which is their main frequency.  W5WXZ 
is 89 years old and he and W4NPX run anywhere from 40 to 60 WPM when talking 
to each other on their CW keyboards.  No, they copy by ear and are not 
translating the code by using decoders.  W6WXZ was 10 over 9, which wasn't 
unusual, because he always has a good signal into Denver.  This put him in 
the center of my band pass CW filter so he sounded extra loud at the time. 
I was listening to the W5 and W8 on 7033.58 and so I decided to see if I 
could filter down on the W8 in order to hear him when he gave his power 
level.  I snapped on the additional CW filters, clicked on the tunable 
crystal filters, and dropped the W8 into the notch filter hole created by 
the tunable crystal filtering system on the Icom 7000 radio.  The QRP 
station was running now Q5 and was running just 4 watts.  Just for the fun 
of it, I zero beateW6WXZ, running along at 50 words per minute, keeping the 
W8 within the notch filter range, and then snapped the VF O  knob into the 4 
position setting which allows each click of the knob to tune 1 Hertz.  I 
counted clicks to see just how far off frequency the W6 was running along at 
50 WPM.  He was 20 Hertz away and I was still copying the W8, who was below 
Q5 copy at first, against the W6 who was 10 over S9 on the meter.  I once 
again was amazed at the fine tuning of the Icom 7000.  You'd think I'd be 
used to it by now but every time something like this happens, I am amazed. 
In fact, I just tuned on to a huge pile up of U S stations calling a 
Paraguay, ZP5CW, station on 40 CW.  The DX station was not Q5 and it was 
made worse since he was running the pile up on frequency and not operating 
split as so many DX stations do when trying to control a big pile up.  I was 
frustrated because I could not hear the call sign of the DX station.  So, 
once again, I cranked down on the DX signal, dropped into the lowest of 3 CW 
filters, flipped on the tunable crystal filtering and dropped him into the 
hole created by the notch filter, but with all the U S stations on, or near, 
his frequency, I still could not get a clear enough signal to pull his call 
sign out of the pile.  So I snapped on the DSP and there he was.  I got his 
call in spite of all the U S stations, loud and strong, calling him.  I've 
said it before but I have always dreamed of such a CW receiver and now I'm 
using one.

Phil.
K0NX