Which brings us to The Complete DXer. OK, coming from a novice--the sport of breaking a pile up is listening to the DX, identifying who just got called, finding that op's frequency, and then learning how the DX is moving after the contact, and being in the right place so be called next.
The pileup gets spread out by the DX moving his RX frequency after each QSO (keeping his TX frequency constant). You could just sit on one frequency and call till the DX goes home or you get lucky, or you could take Bob's advice and develop skills described quite well in the book. Being a new ham and new to DXing, and having read Bob's book--it was a real thrill to make one call contacts in major pileups with 100 watts from an IC-718 and a low dipole. Even better with a K2 or K3, but I did not know better then (2002-3, near the top of the solar cycle)<grin>. Also helps to understand a bit about propagation and pick your best chances. Rich NU6T -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Tom Hammond Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 2:14 PM To: Brett Howard; elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Split DX Hi Brett: >I've heard frequencies where it seems like nothing is going on and then all >of the sudden 10 stations light up. I'm assuming that this is a split DX >and I'm only hearing half of it. That's almost certainly what you're hearing... the end that the DX station is listening to... called 'the piluep'... >But anyway it doesn't make much sense to me. So granted a station can >listen to both frequencies at once and I'm sure transmitting station is >probably only listening when he's not transmitting (unless he has two >separate radios and two separate antennas). This just seems like a >waste of bandwidth especially if he's not doing full duplex. It's a matter of the DX station being able to BE HEARD once a pileup of callers has grown. If the DX station is working everyone 'simplex' (e.g. on his transmit frequency), it won't take long before many of the calling stations start (0r continue) calling the DX station long after he has already picked out a station and is attempting to complete a contact with that station. However, due to the fact that a number of callers continue to call ON TOP of the DX station, no one can hear the DX station, or at least can't hear him well enough to complete the QSO... so everyone continues to call and the DX continues to try to work (or pick out) a single station from those calling ON HIS FREQUENCY. If however the DX says he's listening "UP 5", "UP 10", or "Up wherever", he then is able to move the callers (the pileup) off of HIS transmit frequency, so that all the callers can hear him when he responds to a calling station. Additionally, the pileup will naturally spread out a bit (generally around a central listening frequency) so the DX operator will be able to tune through the pileup, picking out individual callers and (generally) working them at a much faster rate. There have been really excellent ops in the past who could 'handle' an on-frequency pileup as swiftly as those working split, but those ops are few and generally far between. The next effort for the DX operator is to not allow his pileup to become 1) too unruly, and 2) too widely spread out such that it covers too wide an amount of the spectrum. Most times, a goos CW op can keep his pileup mostly contained within 5-7 kHz without too much difficulty. The exception sometimes being when it's a really rare country and there are (literally) several hundred, or more, callers all screaming at once. >Is there a common split distance so that one may easily find the other >half or do people usually just go digging till they find it? Generally "UP 5" is a very commonly used split. I believe the VP6DX crew is using WIDE splits in order to keep THEIR signal well out of any QRM from callers, and to keep it from being too close to the upper band edge of the US extra class bands. They have been specifying splits which allow all classes of licensee to call them... the calling split freq being just a few kHz above the bottom of the General Class band segment. 73, Tom Hammond N0SS _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
