Have no idea if you can adjust the side tone on the Kenwood 
TS480.  Anyone here know about that? Jim WA6EKS

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Lou Kolb <[log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Date sent: Sun, 9 Mar 2014 09:40:52 -0400
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!