I operated from home yesterday strictly on CW for 4-5 hours and wanted to share what worked.  As a comparison last year I used a Ten Tec Omni VII.  Overall I found that I used the 101d much more because there was less fiddling with the controls and that it was less fatiguing to listen to.  My setup:  101d, external autotuner with 200' inverted V, N3FJP software, MORTTY (win keyer), paddles.  I started on 20 meters around 2:15PM.  Preamp 1 was on, width at 600.  The antenna was tuned once per band.  I was able to glance at the wattmeter and found the SWR foldback taking effect around 1.2:1.  At 1.6:1 there was a 10 watt power reduction, but this condition was only encountered on 80 where the antenna bandwidth is of course, much narrower.  The RF Gain was reduced to about 3 o'clock and the audio gain set to headphone listening level.  Interestingly, both of those controls never moved during operation on any band.  That was clearly not the case with the Omni VII.  On 40 and 80 the IPO preamp setting was used.  

Full QSK was flawless.  The noise and signals never pumped the AGC.  Stations could easily be heard between dits at 26 wpm.  That speed never varied except for my final contact with a slow speed guy.  On 40 I got smarter.  To eliminate being zero beat calling a station the TX Clarifier was set to +60 to 70 Hz.  That significantly increased the response rate.  On 40 and 80 I also reduced the BW to 500.  I know that the wide bandwidth will shock some of you, but I like being able to hear around the working frequency and find that the best filter lies between the two ears.  For a while both RXs were used.  One set at 500 Hz and the other at 150Hz.  That worked fine and some may like this.  Since the two RXs are not locked and that the time through the various filters are different, phasing effects are present.  That said, it was fun to use and signals were easily peaked while still retaining the ability to hear the surrounding area.  With the single RX running, using the APF brought the weaker stations to the front and eliminated the close-in strong guys.  That was used on less than 10 contacts, but was very effective.  The APF was set to wide.  I did not try the Contour in the peak mode in place of the APF.  If it's in the IF, that would make it even better.

In short, it was a fun time and the radio proved to be a winner.

Gary
K3OS

 

Useful but in some ways, disappointing. I was hoping for an authoritative technical discussion of the set up of Mic Gain, AMC and Proc levels, but the author avoids this and, in effect, says "use my settings." Also much repetition of the factory manual content, but sometimes more understandable. I recommend this book (partly because it seems to be the only book available on the topic), but it leaves room for more technical detail.

Rick
K8EZB