Radio "Squelch-type" Noise

Travis Marlatte wrote:
: If a transmission breaks the squelch but is too weak to be heard clearly,
: then the squelch is probably too low. That goes for the handhled and for the
: panel mounted. That sounds like what you are describing. Although, just
: increasing the squelch level will also supress weak transmissions that you
: might want to hear. Trying to make the installed environment as quiet as
: possible is a good goal.

: Time to get out a hex wrench and a jeweler's screwdriver...

Not necessarily a good idea. I thought I'd be clever and adjust the squelch
on my KY-197 to crank it up a bit. Turns out there were two pots, and they were very
sensitive to adjustment (read: I screwed it all up and couldn't get it back
reasonable again). I had to obtain the relevant pages in the service manual, put it
on the bench with an RF signal generator and some attenuators to get the adjustment
back within spec. It's still a little bit twitchy and sensitive to noise and opening
squelch, but I *know* it's adjusted to the book now and I'm not going to touch it
anymore.

Other radios may be more forgiving, but I know this one wasn't. You may be
wishing you hadn't fiddled with that particular "knob."

-Cory


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* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
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