Wow, Bonnie. That was great! Can I publish it, with credit given, of course?
John - K8OCL >From: "expeditionradio" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: [email protected] >To: [email protected] >Subject: [digitalradio] The Creature That Ate The 17m Band. (Re: Efficient >spectrum usage) >Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2006 20:53:12 -0000 > >It was a wonderful grayline evening, ensconced in my console chair, as >I sipped the fine vintage of twilight propagation on HF. A familiar >little group of us was merrily engaged in a continent-spanning QSO on >17m. After my turn at the mic in this pleasant little SSB roundtable, >I tweaked the gain up a little as one of the low power ops continued >his feeble transmission. > >Suddenly...a giant tyrannosaurus of a signal, with the kind of speech >processing that rivals a NASA moon mission, excitedly launches his >callsign into the ether only one kilohertz away. A sinking feeling >covers us like a shroud; that sinking feeling---like the fog clearing >around your little sailboat as you glimpse up at the bow of the Exxon >Valdiz oil tanker at 50 yards steaming your way. > >Instinctively I bellow "the frequency is in use!" >A femtosecond after my index finger leaves the PTT button, there is no >doubt our fate is sealed. Two more stations howling their mating >calls, above and below our little nesting frequency. "We're >toast---History!" I mutter. We are witnessing the natural birth of the >most magnificent HF animal in the wild: >"Spectrum Maximus", the Rare-DX Split Pile-Up. > >Undoubtedly, the tyrannosaurus op is now parading his newfound pride >on the cluster, for within moments of his "Roger 59" a slobbering herd >of squawkers encircles us... eating half the tiny 18 MHz phone band >for supper. It thrashes and claws, oblivious to the timid "little >people" under foot. Its eyes and ears are only on the prey---a >weak little voice enjoying the word "up!" to make the monster jump. > >We never stood a chance amidst the gaggle of raspy raptors. There >wasn't even time to meekly QSY! All I could do was chuckle to myself >"Resistance Is Futile, You Will Be Assimilated..." as we were gobbled >up by the giant kilohertz carnivore. > >Bonnie KQ6XA > >(c)2006 Bonnie Crystal. All rights reserved. > >-- > > Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
