At least in the old days you could clear some space with key clicks (-; And to think I started contesting with a Drake 2B (talk about overload!) in 63 before going rather crazy with a major modded 75A4 in 65.
I still have that A4 and its a better battle conditions 160/80 CW radio than filter loaded TS-940 and TS-950SD's using 250 and 400 Hz filters. It uses cascaded 200 and 500Hz filters. Carl KM1H ----- Original Message ----- From: "Guy Olinger K2AV" <[email protected]> To: "Bill and Liz McHugh" <[email protected]> Cc: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 1:17 PM Subject: Re: Topband: UNOCCUPIED BANDWIDTH > 250 Hertz with a K3 is quite narrow. I open up to my 450 Hz 8 pole > (marketed as 400), and unless I'm desperate, leave a hole alone if I can't > put runs above and below fairly well down the skirts. That said, > encroachment that only the 350 Hz 8 pole (marketed as 250) will handle is > getting to be almost standard. We are not yet at the point of needing a > true 250 Hz 8 pole filter. > > Listening at 100 Hz bandwidth will often just find the space between two > stations separated by 400-500 Hz. > > When you find a "hole" best to find its center and width by extending > WIDTH > control until you can just barely hear the stations above and below. 200 > Hz > "holes" are not really opportunities. > > 73, Guy. > > On Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 9:16 AM, Bill and Liz McHugh <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Normally in the CQ160CW contest there is a wall of NA signals across the >> band. But this year I found many frequencies which appeared to be >> unoccupied. >> >> I dropped onto a few of these, sent QRL several times and nobody >> responded. >> I sat on some of these frequencies just listening and nobody appeared >> for >> minutes at a time. Eventually somebody showed up, sent QRL and went to >> work. This happend both Friday and Saturday nights all up and down the >> band. >> >> Initially, I discovered these "holes" with the K3's bandwidth set at 100 >> hz >> but then I opened it up to 150, 200, 250 and still nobody was there. I >> found that a bit strange! >> >> Was the number of NA participants down this year? Certainly the DX was >> out >> in force as I heard some 60 DX entities in my S&P over a few hours having >> fun. >> >> Anyone else notice a similar occurrence? >> >> Bill VE3CSK >> _______________________________________________ >> UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK >> > _______________________________________________ > UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK _______________________________________________ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
