[IRCA] Hets vs Carriers

[Glenn Hauser <wghauser@xxxxxxxxx>]

An accomplished VHF/UHF DXer asked, ``what does a het sound like?``. 

Yes, you don`t run into those much with FM audio! In case anyone else is
wondering, het is short for heterodyne, and it is simply an audio frequency
produced by two AM carriers a few kHz apart. The pitch depends directly on the
separation. Trans-Atlantic MW DXers tend to misuse ``het``, when they really
mean ``carrier``. You may be able to hear a carrier on e.g. 585 kHz without any
heterodyning whatsoever with selectivity narrow enough to get rid of the
signals on 580 and 590. If the TA carrier is less than 5 kHz from a 10-kHz
multiple, then the pitch will be lower and the separation more difficult. For
example the 1521 Saudi against OKC or Buffalo on 1520 is only 1 kHz away, or
1000 Hz. After a while, you should be able to recognize 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 kHz
hets. Of course, the SW DXer hears 5 kHz all the time just tuning across a band
with stations normally separated by 5 kHz rather than 10 --- unless using a
receiver capable of or set to narrower bandwidth. Some even use `het` to refer
to detecting carriers with BFO on, slightly offset from the 9-kHz spacing. You
can`t really have a het with only one frequency/carrier, since by definition it
requires two of them beating against each other (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)



	
		
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