CW Scrubber Kit

[WA4STO]

Any of you guys considered one of these?



They originally called it a "CW Scrubber" although it has now been dubbed a CW "regenerator" which has piqued my interest.

http://www.ae5x.com/blog/2012/12/01/cw-scrubber-kit-is-now-cw-regen-filter-kit/

Here's the problem (it won't be a big whup to most of you...) in the summer, copying weak signal CW on 80 and 40 is just a bitch.  Hell, I've known that since the 60s when copying CW from the Russian Navy.  Lost a great deal of my hearing because of that.

Today, I've got what I feel to be an incredibly efficient antenna.  It's a 270 foot long horizontal "loop" ( well, a loop, it's certainly not) fed with 600 ohm open wire line and tuned with a a Palstar 600 watt tuner.

Works great.  Picks up everything I need to hear to do my traffic handling fun/duties.  Then again, it picks up the bad stuff as well.  QRN.  Tons of it.

So I'm about to bite the bullet (a fifty buck bullet) and see what 'regeneration' can do.

As the soldering iron warms up, I'll post the results.  Right here.  Or is that "hear" ?

73

Luck, WA4STO
ARRL A1-operator, BPL Medallion holder, circa 1977
VUCC Satellite (all CW)
NTS(D) Digital Relay Station, Central Area
NTS(D) Target Station, CAN, TEN & NE
TCC Station ?Fox?

[KK0G]

I've considered building one to use with my homebrew rigs but honestly I don't really need it because my 'real' rigs have excellent IF filters in them. I've heard good things about the CW Scrubber though.

[cockpitbob]

I would imagine if you are running QRO it might be helpful to pull in a qrp signal, but if you are QRP I would bet if you can't hear him without a scrubber he won't hear your QRP signal.

[WA4STO]

I would imagine if you are running QRO it might be helpful to pull in a qrp signal, but if you are QRP I would bet if you can't hear him without a scrubber he won't hear your QRP signal.

Point taken.

In my "line of work", I have to try to take CW traffic from a wide variety of stations.  Some nights on 80, I can't hear the guy sending me traffic with a kilowatt. who is located about 40 miles away.  Wicked wicked wicked QRN.

The reviews on the cw scrubber kit make the point that the qrn is 'removed' and that the actual CW is 'regenerated' to the point where the reviewer(s) could copy cw that was in fact below the perceived noise floor.

Kinda like JT-65!

That remains to be seen, but I do remember back in the 70s having an Autek Research QF-1 which was a pretty decent filter.

More to follow!  (of course...)

73

LH

[cockpitbob]

Taking traffic, I can see how you would want every edge possible.  Besides, the cost isn't too high and it's something new to try.
Can't wait to hear how it works. :D

[RadioRay]

Welllllll?!?!?

Now that you've had the CW Scrubber a while, does it work?  Does it have a spin and FLUFF cycle?  Can I wash my little, pink poodle in it?


Brain Damaged Ops Wanna Know!


>Ray

[WA4STO]

Brain Damaged One(s): I feel your pain. 

My scrubber project is a bust.  It's been sitting here, 95% complete for, well, months.  Knowing me, it'll get shuffled from the nearby bench to a less nearby one in due time.

Given that, it's a freebie if you were planning on getting one anyway.  GET IT OUTTA HERE!

Case and instructions included.

73

Luck