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I'm obviously showing how green I am, oh well. Many folks here have experience with the 40A but I'm just now starting to use mine. I don't know how to zero-beat without causing interference. There is no spot option, do people just go key-down when zero-beating another station?

Thanks all.

With rigs like the NC-40A which have "single-signal" CW reception due to a
reasonably sharp IF filter, you can more or less tune for the strongest
signal and you'll be close. If you know the amount of shift it uses and can
tune for that value of pitch, that's a way to go. Exact zero beat might be
a little hard to achieve but you should be able to get within 100 Hz or so.

Come to think of it, I think the NC-40A's sidetone comes from monitoring
its own signal. So you should be able to press your key (clear frequency)
and sort of internalize in your mind the pitch you hear, then tune in the
station you plan to call until the pitch matches what you heard.

73-

Nick, WA5BDU

Thanks Nick. This is pretty much what I have been doing, both tuning for max signal as well as trying to match the caller's pitch to something that is close to my sidetone. Even by keying on a clear frequency and internalizing the pitch (or trying to, anyway) it has still been difficult for me to get a match with other signals. Maybe if I just do it more I will get better at it?

Thanks again!

And just remember, if he then comes back
on a new freq, don’t retune, use your RIT.
73,
Gary
WB6OGD

On Tue, Jul 23, 2019 at 12:14 PM, wb6ogd wrote:

don’t retune, use your RIT.

Excellent point! If they can hear me I don't want to keep jumping around. Funny thing, RIT was a difficult concept for me to grasp until I used it with my 40A. Granted the concept is simple, but for some reason my brain just didn't get it until I actually turned it on and spun the knob.

Thanks,
Michael N6MST

Michael,

Another option

There are kits available for zero beat indicators. It just lights an LED when the signal has a certain pitch. I used WB3AAL's K6XX zero beat indicator kit in most of my QRP rigs. If the light is flashing with the signal, you are within 20 Hz of zero beat (if adjusted properly). WB3AAL is a silent key. His site is still there. I wonder if someone is keeping it going. I haven't tried to order any myself since he passed.

I liked his because it had surface mount components and was tiny. It was not a problem fitting it into any rig. It was not difficult to build. 12 parts. It has relatively large surface mount parts. So, it was a good kit to practice with SMT.

There are others kits out there.
'Grandson of Zero Beat' has been around quite a while. It has an array of LEDs that indicate roughly how far off you are from zero-beat. It is huge. So, I never tried it.

The QRPGuys have a kit too. It is designed to be used outboard. Just run your audio through it.

WB3AAL's was the only one I ever saw that had surface mount components.

You can see one of mine at work in this video. It is about 8 minutes and 20 seconds into the video.



73,
Richard - K4KRW