CW Tuning Indicator

Question: The Cw tuning indicator (that indicates zerobeat) on my MP never ever illuminates. Is there a menu item, perhaps, that turns this on and off? Or some internal adjustment that puts it on frequency?

Response 1: There's a tiny pot under the top panel access (the flip door) to adjust it to the tone you are using. The adjustment needs to be done at the typical CW speed you use, as the consensus here has been that speed affects the pot setting. 73, Jim N7US

Response 2: The default value for the indicator is 700 Hz. If you have adjusted your CW pitch to something else, you must adjust the pot under the little trap door on top of the rig. If your pitch is 700 hz and it doesn't light when you are offset at 700, you need to adjust the pot as well. Procedure is to turn on the "spot" tone, then SLOWLY adjust the pot (see manual to see which one to turn -- I think it's labeled "cw" on the board) until the indicator light illuminates. Steve W3SY

Response 3: I have found an easy way of tuning in CW signals on the MkV so that I can hit the 60 Hz APF button and they're in the passband without labouriously centering them in the 240 and 120 first. The method makes getting then into 250 Hz filter very easy by comparison (4 times easier?). Here it is, although not as complete as I would like.

1. Someone on the reflector described changing the cw offset in one of the menu items so that no matter whether you are on CW LSB or CW USB the frequency readout is the same when you have a cw sig tuned in. i.e. if, while listening to a sig on cw usb and you push the cw button once to switch to cw lsb, the sig doesn't vanish and you don't have to tune a couple of kHz to find it. I followed the suggestion and am glad I did. So, the method I am about to describe depends on having made this menu change. Sure wish I could tell you which menu item it was and what to change it to, but I can't. Let's hope someone can tell us.

2. Having made the change described in 1, here's how to centre a cw sig in the passband. Tune in the sig and listen to the note. Hit the cw button once to change from cw usb to cw lsb (or maybe it's the other way around). The lsb button will blink for a moment. The cw sig note (audio frequency) will probably be different. Retune so it is closer to the note you heard before. You want to split the difference. Now hit the cw button again and the usb button will blink for a moment. The note should be closer to what you heard a moment ago. Retune so it is closer yet. Keep hitting the cw button and retuning until the two notes are really close to being the same. Eventually, no matter how many times you hit the cw button to change from usb to lsb and back again, the note won't change. Hit the 60 Hz button and there's the sig. Well, you don't have to make the two notes the same, just no more than 60 Hz apart. Only takes 2 or 3 iterations. Works just fb on sigs you can barely hear. Also, you don't lose the sig while you're doing it. This works faster for me than going through the tune to 240, then to 120, then to 60 route. Others can do this instantly by ear. No doubt they can also copy RTTY in their heads. (In 1958 I heard a, probably apocryphal, story about a USAF lieutenant who could actually do this and, no, his name wasn't McElroy.) Hope this helps. Of course it won't unless someone tells us how to do step 1. 73 de Jim Smith VE7FO

Response 4: I find it much easier to activate the spot function and then with the main dial tune the received cw signal untill it is zero-beating with the spot tone. You will find that the same tone is then heard in lsb/cw or usb/cw. 73/Ib OZ9DR