QRG.000

In the old days we had technology called "analogue". Our radios depending on it. Oscillators oscillated and ruled dials marked where we listened and transmitted. Or so we hoped. Calibration was mandatory, but with calibration standards of varying reliability we mostly just crossed our fingers when a rare DX station showed up near the band edge. With less stable oscillators, our VFOs might drift out of band while our attention was on the business at hand.

Analogue is mostly gone, pushed out by digital. Gone are the ruled dials and the frequent need for calibration. When the VFO says "21.033.91", we believe it. Indeed, if I arrange a schedule with you on 24.938500 MHz, we can both spin our VFOs to that frequency (or type in with a keyboard) at the appointed time and we'll find each other. We probably won't even have to twiddle the knob to make our voices recognizable on SSB.

Modern technology is a marvel. But being able to set up a sked at 24.938500 MHz is awkward; there are too many digits to remember. So most hams round it off to 24.938 or even 24.940 MHz to get rid of those pesky rightmost digits -- zeros are useful for doing that. Frequencies are much easier to remember when you can mentally ignore the trailing zeros of a precise frequency. 

Of course that reduces the available sked (or DXpedition) frequencies but, well, the bands aren't as crowded as they one were. If you run into QRM you QSY 5 or 10 kHz, precisely, and carry on.

That may be fine for skeds and DXpeditions, but what about other activity that isn't on repeaters, nets, digital watering holes, etc.? What should I do when I call CQ? Many hams will very carefully adjust their VFOs to, say, 28450.00 (or 28450.000) kHz and make their call. Only rarely will that least significant zero flicker, suggesting a drift of ~0.03 ppm or, more likely, a stray pulse from the optical encoder.

When you click a DX spot on the band map you are almost assured that you will hear the station if propagation cooperates and the spotter didn't make an error when manually typing the frequency. But few do that anymore, letting the software read the frequency, automatically round it to nearest 100 Hz and then broadcast the message around the globe. 

Even if the frequency is slightly wrong, you can assuredly wager that the majority of the click-and-call stations will all be zero beat, defying the DX operator to pull a call out of the bedlam. Oscillator calibration is that good. It's so bad that some software applications apply a random offset to the spot frequency to prevent zero beating.

That's one negative consequence of digital precision and there are others. Consider the station choosing a frequency on which to call CQ. An excessive zeal to punch in all those rightmost zeros can have unexpected effects. Most receivers inherently have spurious signals (birdies) and many stations must deal with RFI sources. Birdies are usually not on exact kilohertz frequencies, but many RFI sources are. These can come from various electronics or from commercial transmitters (e.g. AM broadcast), the latter of which do often operate on round number frequencies such as 910 kHz.

Notice that last frequency -- its second harmonic is within the CW DXing sub-band at 1820 kHz. Many of us have weak or strong signals on frequencies like that. Call CQ on exactly 1820 kHz and many station will hear you zero beat that AM carrier harmonic. It happens more often than you might believe. The smart operators deliberately choose a frequency that is not an exact kilohertz. They know that they will have better "luck" being heard.

I wonder, as do many others, why so many hams choose to "channelize" themselves when it is completely unnecessary? Is there an aesthetic to the practice that lesser mortals are incapable of comprehending? Are zeros pretty? I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

It's gotten so bad that I tend to do the opposite, deliberately. I'll pick a frequency like 21249.12 kHz to call CQ. A surprising number of stations will call me at 21249.00 kHz and then wonder why they are having difficulty copying me. I shrug and dial in the RIT when necessary.

The practice of channelizing is uncommon in contests. When the band is packed with signals you rarely have the luxury of choosing a round number to start your run. You narrow the filter and squeeze your way in between a couple of big guns to make your call. Those non-zero least significant digits are ignored for those 24 or 48 hours.

In our technological society we build exceeding complex devices and use them to improve our lives. Hams are no different. It is perhaps not surprising that the way we operate is influenced by that same technology, just as much as a pedestrian who blindly stumbles into the roadway with eyes fixed on their phone.

We can precisely set our frequency, and for many that means we must precisely set the frequency. Round number are attractive to many. I enjoy watching how technology affects people. It can be amusing. It's a guilty pleasure of mine.