Q Dan, KE6LBX, “I am having a hard time tuning my QRP transceiver for zero beat on CW. It seems as though the stations are always telling me that I’m off frequency. With low power on a crowded band, I know that zero beating is important, but I don’t really know how to do it. Can you help?”
A All you need to do is to match the tone of the received CW signal to the receiver’s offset. If your rig has an offset of 800 Hz, that’s what you would tune for. Most transceivers have offsets between 600 and 800 Hz, and they are usually adjustable so that you can select the tone that is most pleasing to you. If you don’t know what your rig’s offset is, and you don’t have the equipment to measure it, then you have to use trial and error to find the right tone. (This assumes that the transmit-receive offset is set via the VFO and there isn’t a separate fixed-frequency BFO employed.) One word of caution: If you’re using a direct-conversion receiver or a wide filter, you may end up on the wrong side.
From QST December 1999
