Tom,

I'm pretty sure the 590's side tone adjustment causes the CW pitch to track 
with the side tone.  The 590 also has a feature that causes it to 
"auto-tune" to the pitch of the CW station.  It's not perfect, but it works 
fairly well, especially when the signal is strong.

Steve

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Behler" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2014 10:03
Subject: Re: 4WeWhoDoCW,AGudRtikl;dd:Zero beating, what is it, how do we do 
it and why should we do itf, By N3EF


> Lou:
>
> I'm hoping the TS590 sidetone is set up similarly to that of the K3.
>
> I have a preferred pitch for CW listening, and I always thought that the
> TS590 would allow me to use that side tone as a reference when zero 
> beating
> the other station.
>
> I am just a bit concerned that the tone frequencies don't perfectly match
> when I listen to another station in CW and then in CW reverse modes.
>
> I'll be curious to see what other have to say about this.
>
> Tom Behler: KB8TYJ
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Lou Kolb
> Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2014 9:41 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: 4WeWhoDoCW,AGudRtikl;dd:Zero beating, what is it, how do we 
> do
> it and why should we do itf, By N3EF
>
> Danny,
>
> Great article on something that has long been a pet peev of mine. Most ops
> probably don't even know  where they have to tune a signal for it to be
> exactly zero-beat with the other station. They just tune to a pitch they
> like which may or may not be right on frequency. The K3 sidetone tracks 
> the
> transmitter offset frequency so its extremely easy to zerobeat. You just
> choose a sidetone you like and make sure your receiver matches it when you
> tune in a signal and you're good to go. I think several newer transceivers
> are set up like this but for far too long it was harder than it should've
> been to zero-beat on CW.
> Lou Kolb
> Voice-over Artist:
> Radio/TV Ads, Video narrations
> Messages On-hold:
> www.loukolb.com
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dan B Dyer Jr,/Danny" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2014 8:03 AM
> Subject: 4WeWhoDoCW,AGudRtikl;dd:Zero beating, what is it, how do we do it
> and why should we do itf, By N3EF
>
>
>> Found this referenced on the QRPL list, and thought it a good simple,
>> wake up call-reminder, and one which will cause me to make sure my
>> side tone is set as required. HTH, Wb4idu.
>> Zero beating, what is it, how do we do it and why should we do it
>>
>> By N3EF
>> First, lets define what zero beating is in general. Zero beat is the
>> condition reached during a measurement or calibration when the beat
>> frequency between two input signals is no longer detectable. And the
>> beat frequency is the frequency produced when two signals are mixed or
>> combined.
>> The beat frequency equals the difference or offset between the two
>> frequencies. In cw, we are using two audio frequencies to do this. One
>> frequency is your sidetone and the other is the pitch of the received
>> cw signal which changes as you adjust the tuning dial. In reality, we
>> are not listening for the beat frequency. We are listening for the
>> sound of the two signals going in and out of phase with each other as
>> the two frequencies get close to each other. The two frequencies are
>> so close, you can barely tell the difference between them, but you can
>> hear a change in intensity as they go in and out of phase with each
>> other adding and subtracting in level. It is a "wow...wow...wow.."
>> sound that gets slower and slower as the two signals get closer and
>> closer in frequency. It is more pronounced if the two signal levels
>> are the same so you may need to adjust your volume and/or sidetone
>> level. It is easier to hear the "wow...wow" sound when listening to
>> two steady tones, but you can also detect it with one steady tone and
>> one switching on and off such as cw morse code. Once you get the hang
>> of it, it becomes second nature and you can do it very quickly. Here
>> is the sound of two steady tones of around 750hz that start out at 50
>> cycles apart and gradually get closer until they are identical in
>> frequency. The sound of the two frequencies going in and out of phase
>> with each other is very
>> distinctive. wowwow.mp3   And here is what it sounds like when receiving 
>> a
>> cw signal as I tune above and below his frequency. You can clearly
>> hear the distinctive sound made when the two frequencies are at or
>> very near each other. They start out with just the received cw and
>> then you hear my sidetone come on. zerobeat.mp3, zerobeat1.mp3,
>> zerobeat2.mp3.
>> Now, some of the old timers will tell you that this isn't "real"
>> zero-beating. They will tell you that zero-beating is the way we use
>> to do it when we had separate transmitters and receivers. Well, they
>> are wrong in telling you that. The way they did it was just another
>> way of getting your transmit frequency the same as the one you are
>> receiving and was also known as zero-beating. The way we do it now is
>> different, but it is still zero-beating.
>> So why should we zero-beat anyway? Well, if we don't, then we are
>> transmitting on two different frequencies and using more bandwidth
>> than necessary. You may be QRM'ing another nearby station. The other
>> op may not like the pitch of the tones he hears and must use his RIT to
> change it.
>> The
>> other op may be using a narrow filter and not even hear your reply. I
>> recently operated with a special event callsign during the Straight
>> Key Century Club's first anniversary special event. There were
>> operators from each call district using the same callsign appended
>> with their respective call district. I was calling CQ 1Kz away from
> another SKCC operator.
>> People
>> answering just threw out their callsign without indicating who they
>> were responding to. This is normal and acceptable as a response but
>> some of them were 500Hz off frequency directly between us...so who
>> were they responding to? And what about the QRM they were causing
>> because they didn't take the time and effort to zero-beat. There was
>> no big pile-up going on here as it is an often used tactic to be heard
>> when there IS a pile-up. I was amazed at how many stations were
>> calling me so far off frequency. Some people don't know what
>> zero-beating is, some do but don't know how to do it, and some know
>> how but think it is totally unecessary. You don't have to spend a lot
>> of time and be exactly on frequency, but you should try to get close.
>> There
>> are many aspects of working CW that mark you as a good operator. I
>> think zero-beating is one of them.
>> There are other ways to zero-beat the other station. If your rig has a
>> cw-reverse mode, you can just switch back and forth from cw to
>> cw-reverse and adjust your dial until the tone sounds the same in each
>> mode. You can tune until you think your close and then turn on a
>> narrow filter and tune for max signal level. Some rigs like the Yaesu
>> FT-897 have a zero-beat indicator lamp. There are also zero-beat
>> indicator kits that you can adapt to your rig. If you have an audio
>> output to your computer you can use one of several programs available
>> to do it via your soundcard.
>> One other thing you need to be aware of is that some rigs have an
>> adjustable sidetone pitch that does not track the rigs transmit
>> offset. If you change the sidetone pitch, you can't use it to
>> zero-beat properly.
>> I hope this article and sound files have been of help and I hope you
>> consider zero-beating an important part of your operating practices.
>> Long live CW!
>