PRC-320 on a spectrum analyzer

Today I went with Ernesto (EA1LQ) to do some testing in order to get the PRC-320 ready for the international Naval Contest.
I got some pictures of the RF output on a spectrum analyzer.
The first picture is CW on 10.0000Mhz with a 10Mhz span. It shows two spurious signals 3.5 Mhz above and below the main signal. These two peaks bacame slightly smaller as the transmission progressed and did not seem particularly worrying, as they appear to be consistent with the service manual specs. They are 40dB below the main signal, so if we assume that the PRC-320 transmits the main signal at its nominal power of 30W, then the spurious signal would be in the range of 3mW. If we are thinking in terms of signal strength, 40 dB represent between 6 and 7 s-meter units.
But we were mainly concerned about the modulation in USB so we analyzed the output in that mode, and the result is presented in the second picture. We used the FM noise from a TV set as an AF generator. We were mainly concerned about the peak that was there, very pronounced, even when we covered the mic. What do you think about it?
One of therese days I will take the PRC-320 to a mountain top near the city and ask some fellow hams to make recordings of the received signal.

Alexandroupolis, Greece (SV7LWV)

Today I had a QSO on the 20-meter band with SV7LWV (George), who was operating from his uncle's station (SV7CFP) in Alexandroupolis. I still have some RFI in my car when I operate at full power (100W) on the 20m band.
Alexandroupoli is about 14.5 km (9 miles) west of the delta of the river Evros, 40 km from the border with Turkey, 300 km (186 mi) from Thessaloniki on the newly constructed Egnatia highway, and 750 km (466 mi) from Athens. Around the city one finds small fishing villages like Makri and Dikela to the west, and suburban Antheia, Aristino, Nipsa, Loutra to the east, while north of the city are the ever closing Palagia, Abantas, Aissymi and Kirkas. At the 2001 census, the main city had a population of 48,885 and the municipality had a population of 52,720.
The city's history only goes back to the 19th century. Long used as a landing ground for fishermen from the coast of Samothrace opposite, the location was known as Dedeagatch, meaning "tree of the grandfather" (the word dede means "grandfather" and the word ağaç means "tree" in Turkish). The name was based on a local tradition of a wise dervish having spent much of his time in the shade of a local tree and being eventually buried beside it.
A small settlement developed in the area during the construction of a railway line connecting Istanbul to the major cities of Macedonia from Kuleliburgaz. The work was part of an effort to modernise the Ottoman Empire, and was assigned to engineers from Austria-Hungary. The settlement soon grew into a fishing village, which also used the name Dedeagatch.

International Naval Contest 2009

December 12th and 13th are the dates for the International Naval Contest 2009 - sponsored by the Portuguese Navy Hamradio Club - NRA. This Great Naval Contest takes place every year on the second weekend of December. This year, NRA (Portuguese Navy Hamradio Club) will be organising the International Naval Contest. When: Saturday 12 Dec. 2009 16:00 UTC until Sunday 13 Dec. 2009 15:59 UTC.
Bands: 3.5 - 7 - 14 - 21 - 28 MHz.
Mode: CW-SSB-Mixed.
Exchange:

1. Naval Club Member: RST + CLUB + MEMBERSHIP NUMBER (eg. "599 PN007").

2. Non Naval Club Member: RST + NUMBER (eg. "599 001").

Points:

1. Naval Club Members: 10 Points.

2. Non Naval Club Members: 1 Point.
Multipliers:

1. Every contacted and logged member of a participating Naval Club.
2. Every Naval station only counted once as multiplier during the contest regardless of the number of bands you work them on.
Note: Participation in contest only as member of one club, do not use different club membership numbers.
Score: Total QSO points x Multipliers.
Classes: A = All band mixed mode (single op); B = All band CW (single op); C = All band SSB (single op); D = All band SWL; E = Naval-Club-Station (multi op); F = Non Naval.
Trophys and awards: First winner of each class plus one more special trophy to the winner of most participated category. The goal of this trophy is to increase participation. A Special Award will be presented tothe first five classified stations of each class.
Logs: All electronic Logs are to use formats: Cabrillo, Word or Excel. Each Log is to be titled with the Contest Station Call Sign.
Having into consideration that there could be a large number of Old Men who don't use computers, we will accept handwritten paper Logs.

The summary sheet is to have "FAIR PLAY STATEMENT" stating that contest rules and general amateur rules have been applied during operation. All handwritten paper Logs are to be forwarded to:NRA - Núcleo Radioamadores da ArmadaInternational Naval ContestATTN: Contest ManagerETNA - Base Naval de Lisboa - ALFEITE 2810-001 Almada PORTUGAL Electronic Logs are to be addressed to:E-Mail: inc.contest09@nra.pt February 1st, 2010 is the deadline to receive either electronic or handwritten Contest Logs.
Participant Clubs:

ANARS Australian Naval Amateur Radio Society AX

BMARS Belgian Maritime Amateur Radio Society BM

MFCA Marine Funker Club Austria CA

FNARS Finish Naval Amateur Radio Society FN

INORC Italian Navy Old Rhythmers Club IN

MARAC Marine Amateur Radio Club Netherlands MA

MF Marinefunker-Runde e.V. MF

ARMI Associazione Radioamatori Marinai Italiani MI

RNARS Royal Naval Amateur Radio Society RN

YO-MARC Romanian Marine Radio Amateur Club YO

NRA Núcleo de Radio Amadores da Armada Portugal PN

Tinny sound on a PRC-320?

In the tests I have done with the PRC-320 so far, I have got repports of weird modulation as if the audio sounded tinny.
I have consulted this issue with the fellows at the hfpack yahoo group and I got very interesting replies. I will quote a brief extract of the reply by Mark Francis (KIoPF), who is an authority in military radio equipment:

The human male voice develops audio energy from nearly zero cps in the bass to way up there in the multi-thousand cps region in the sibilants ("S"-sounds).
But audio engineers long ago determined that the most important range for effective communication was around 300 - 3000 cps. The initial research was done for telephone lines, but it was quickly found that the same specs were good for AM voice transmission, then SSB.
Furthermore, it has been demonstrated over and over that in really noisy, bad propo conditions on the HF bands (like what we have now, although it's getting better), pretty much any audio energy developed below 500-600 cps is wasted - it gets lost in the noise.
On a packset you have two big strikes against you to start with -- low power and often marginal antenna systems. You need every advantage you can get! Modern military packset designers have realized this and have usually designed their audio to really light up in the 600-3000cps region, then on top of that have included heavy-duty speech processing to enhance the mids and highs even more.
You PRC-2000 owners will know what I'm talking about. That set has the best audio for cutting through noise I've ever heard. But it'll drive the so-called "hi-fi SSBers" absolutely bonkers.
On my PRC-1099s I know to be working to spec, I've had people tell me my filters are bad, the audio is kaput, or I'm off-frequency. This last is because they erroneously interpret the "tinny" sound, as you call it, to the radio being off-frequency, instead of actually listening for the real indications of an off-freek SSB signal.

Mark Francis (KI0PF) is the author of Mil Spec Radio Gear Volume 2 available direct from the author (signed, on request) and from Universal Radio, Fair Radio and Electric Radio. $29 cash/check/M.O. or $30.17 via Paypal, when ordereddirect from KI0PF & shipped to the U.S. (foreign buyers please contact him). See: www.mmfrancis.com/MSRG2/MSRG2.pdf. Volume 1 is still available from CQ, Universal Radio, and Amazon.

Asiatic Russia (RX9FM)

I have just received the eQSL from RX9FM (Vlad from Perm, Russia) for the QSO I made last week with a 4-meter-long verical antenna in my car.

Today I have discussing with a colleague (EA3YK) about the convenience of the eQSL system. The fear we have is based on the personalim of the project, and what would happen if the author was no longer able or willing to continue with it. I told him that eQSL has such a magnitude nowadays that there would be some serious firm willing to buy the existing databases to continue the business, but my colleague was not so optimistic.