Meeting
On
Friday 21 May 2004
Clyde, G8XNH, had asked for some help in setting up his H.F. transmitter to use the VOX properly. It was agreed that this was a suitable topic for our meeting this evening.
Before we got into the actual knob twiddling part of the meeting, Roger, G3TDM, directed a discussion amongst the members to remind everyone just what VOX and the associated controls were. The topics discussed included:
Compression
ALC
VOX
VOX Delay
Anti-VOX
This was a useful revision period and reminded many members just what these various facilities achieve on a modern rig.
After the discussion attention turned to Clyde’s IC706. The various controls were identified and adjusted according to the Icom manual. Another rig was set-up in the adjacent room, in order to monitor the effects of the adjustments. This was very disappointing, as Clyde’s rig transmitting into a dummy load was hardly audible in the next room. The dummy load was better screened than we would have imagined. Initial tests were carried out at low power on 80 metres. Moving to 20 metres and increasing the power improved the reception – but still not a strong signal!
So the meeting ended with members having brushed up their knowledge of modern VOX and associated facilities. However it proved rather more difficult than imagined to demonstrate the effects of altering these controls.