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Author Topic: On Giving Useful Reports  (Read 2893 times)
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K1JJ
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"Let's go kayaking, Tommy!" - Yaz


« on: March 12, 2020, 03:13:29 PM »

For the most part hams love helping each other to improve our rigs and we easily volunteer reports to each other. It's in our nature to help. We all need on-air help at times.  I'd like to expand on this idea.


There's four types of on-air reports:     Never Given,   Hi-Hi FB,   Somewhat Useful,     VERY Useful.


1) Never given:  (Thinking)  "I'd better not say anything about his hum or this guy will get POed at me and I'll look like a complainer."


2)  Hi-Hi  FB  "Everybody is loud here tonight and Everybody sounds great!"   (FB, OM)


3)  Somewhat Useful: "Moe, this is the best I've ever heard you!  Nice audio balance and a very quiet background since you made those changes!"


4)  Very Useful: "Shemp, I could be wrong, but you might have a little too much mid-bass. Could you try rolling off the 150 Hz muds a bit?"

 "Jacques, you have a loud 60 Hz hum that I never heard before... do you hear it in your monitor too?"

"Elmer, I notice your signal on my SDR waterfall is extending with some splatter past +- 13 KHz.  Did you know this?"

"Fabio,  you sound like you have a sock in your mouth! What happened to your highs?"
 
"Rico Suave, you seem to be drifting up 2 KHz when you first key up... did you know this?"

"Dr. Love, looks like you fixed that tearing highs problem from the other day... goooood job!"


You get the picture.  Useful info is needed by all of us. But here's the problem:  It's human nature, but subconsciously we don't forget the people who gave us unfavorable reports. We may not forget it for a long time. Whereas, a good report is usually forgotten in a few days... we may remember it but not who gave it.


So, we take a risk of offending our buddies by being critical of problems when they are not good. But everyone says they want to hear the truth -  but do they really?


One example of telling it like it is is the TimTron.  I can axe a few audio-experienced people in a group how we sound with a new lashup and get hi hi FB reports. Then we axe Tim and he may say we're too bassy and have little highs. Or he hears some distortion. Tron takes the heat/hit for the team.  It's also possible some guys don't have the critical ears Tron has... I get it.


I'm not saying we need to be complainers and piss off everyone with reports... just that when we are asked or hear a problem, we should speak up. It's too easy to be politically correct and hide. We take no heat and it is safer. But a well placed critique once in a while is VERY useful to the other guy and deep down we know it is the right thing to do. Emailing a follow-up recording is possibly one of the best ideas to show exactly what you mean and show your genuine concern.

It's a form of hard love.  I try to make a point of thanking anyone who has the BAs to tell me something is not quite right with my signal. And don't worry that I will hold a grudge... Anyone who takes the time and effort to let me know is a hero in my book...   Grin

Again, for the most part hams love helping each other to improve our rigs and we easily volunteer reports to each other. It's in our nature to help.

T
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Use an "AM Courtesy Filter" to limit transmit audio bandwidth  +-4.5 KHz, +-6.0 KHz or +-8.0 KHz when needed.  Easily done in DSP.

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W2NBC
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« Reply #1 on: March 12, 2020, 04:35:30 PM »

“Hey Tron, how’s my audio?”

Trust me, you KNOW you’ve arrived when the Tron in his fluent Cambridge English reports, “Beauteous!”

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N1BCG
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« Reply #2 on: March 12, 2020, 04:49:10 PM »

If an op asks me for a report I usually first respond by asking "how do you want to sound?"

The reason for this is to find out what their expectations are. If someone says that they want to make the most of their 20 Watts and that they spend most of their time chasing DX on SSB then I'm not going to criticize them for having 300-3k audio on AM. That's what they should have and it's likely to be what their rig was designed for. Imagine slamming someone for that...

I also prefer to know what they are using for a mic and transmitter before making a judgement. Someone running a Flex or Anan with a studio mic and sounding like hell will get a very different report than someone with a DX-100 and D-104 and sounding clean and clear.

This approach avoids a lot of unhelpful disappointment and discouragement.

It's important to offer guidance to ops who *could* sound much better. Even a scathing "You sound hyellowy!" report followed by suggestions of how to improve things will go a long way to having that op return to the frequency and mode.
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K1JJ
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"Let's go kayaking, Tommy!" - Yaz


« Reply #3 on: March 12, 2020, 04:56:53 PM »

If an op asks me for a report I usually first respond by asking "how do you want to sound?"

This approach avoids a lot of unhelpful disappointment and discouragement.


VERY good point.  Lately I even preface my own "fishing for an audio report"  by saying I am looking for a clean, natural, unprocessed sound... how am I doing?

Jeff, yes, a report card with a Tron Beauteous stamp is a rare thing, like finding a one pound black diamond... Wink

T
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Use an "AM Courtesy Filter" to limit transmit audio bandwidth  +-4.5 KHz, +-6.0 KHz or +-8.0 KHz when needed.  Easily done in DSP.

Wise Words : "I'm as old as I've ever been... and I'm as young as I'll ever be."

There's nothing like an old dog.
KK4YY
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« Reply #4 on: March 12, 2020, 05:48:22 PM »

For the most part hams love helping each other to improve our rigs and we easily volunteer reports to each other. It's in our nature to help. We all need on-air help at times.
Tom,

I think that being helpful is more of a social construct than that of human nature. Being helpful to others always finds its way back to the self-interest of the helper. If all it does is make you feel good about yourself, even that is in ones self-interest, which is natural to humans.

Unfortunately, altruism is more the exception, than the rule of our nature. To deny this, is to live in a fantasy world where everyone plays nice with each other. Trying to institute this fallacy of the nature of man leads only to oppression by those "true believers" who will hold this belief to the exclusion of reason. But I digress..

In the present case, of giving helpful reports, we maintain a social contract to facilitate communication, without which the communication fails. Those who don't abide by this contract soon leave or, worse yet, become the jammers that find a power in the destruction of communication that satisfies, guess what... their own self-interest.

So yeah... giving helpful reports is good. But done more out of necessity than nature.


Don
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KL7OF
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« Reply #5 on: March 13, 2020, 09:33:47 AM »

Can you hear me?
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WD8BIL
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« Reply #6 on: March 13, 2020, 11:31:25 AM »

Him: "Hey, how's my audio sound"

Me: "Does "space shuttle" ring a bell?"  Grin
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Patrick J. / KD5OEI
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« Reply #7 on: March 16, 2020, 12:06:59 PM »

Him: "Hey, how's my audio sound"

Me: "Does "space shuttle" ring a bell?"  Grin

Me: "Yay I sound like NASA spacecraft!"

Are there any recordings of the so called bad "hyellowy" audio?
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