I agree 100%, I run alot.. but im FAR FAR from big.. my rule of thumbs is... Calling CQ TEST.. leave enough room between CQ's to hear your own call 2x in a row 10wpm LESS that your CQ'ing at.. I generally cq @ 28 WPM as it says on the N1MM program.. and I had the delay @ about 8 Seconds. Here is one thing that REALLY irks me ( any contest definatally not TB specific ) I cq.. I get a weak reply.. I send ? or __? or w/e i need to.. and they CHANGE THEIR SPEED..or they slow down from 25 WPM to 10 wpm..REALLY? I wouldent CQ @ a WPM that I couldent copy a call @ 99,1 % of the time @ the same speed with a marginal to light signal. ( the other .9% im drinkin coffee n I slurp loud hihi) Also hear a few ..very few thank goodness, horrible dot dash ratios out there.. like the dashes were @ 25 wpm but the dots @ 40..tht is SO HARD to copy.. STOP doing that! On the flip side.. I think the speed gurus are hoping for that 45 second opening to super-caledonia and the only way they will make the q is 100% copy & one exchange @ 38 WPM.
-Steve Raas N2JDQ On Sun, Dec 4, 2011 at 4:05 PM, Cormac Gebruers <[email protected]>wrote: > Hi All, > > This weekend I spent a bit of time dipping in to the ARRL 160m contest. > Something that has struck me a lot over the past few contests on topband > struck me yet again last night and I figured it was time I put pen to > paper. I think (hope) it is something fellow contesters might appreciate > being reminded about as it will help increase their topband score: > > I'm a pretty typical little pistol station; on topband I run 100w into a > base loaded vertical that is just shy of 18m high. It has a reasonable > ground system under it - 44 radials that are a quarter wave on 80m and that > radial system is also connected to my 64 quarter wave radial system for my > 40m vertical (that is in the direction of USA/Canada as it happens). I live > on the shores of the Atlantic ocean so I'm luckier than most in terms of > far field. I use a K9AY for listening that is over one wavelength from my > transmit antenna and has a buried coax feed. These two antennas, 100w and a > good radio (Yaesu FT-2000 with AC0C roofing filter mod) are a balanced > combination in practice - lots of time on the air suggests my ears and > mouth are pretty well matched. > > One pattern that lots of operating on topband has thrown up is this; if the > band is open during the night (not special conditions around > sunset/sunrise), I'm usually quite audible (but far from rock crushing) > into the areas about 4000-6000km E/W from my QTH e.g. to the east coast of > the USA. In a normal DX situation I'll call at a relatively low speed > (16WPM) until I get one through i.e. when the frequency is sufficiently QRM > & QRN free. My callsign will generally be copied by the DX station after > two (perhaps three) repeats. After that we'll have a pretty solid QSO > (provided band conditions aren't fluctuating rapidly). > > In a contest situation however things too often go differently; too many > run stations treat topband just like the higher bands and call CQ *but only > listen for a very brief period* before calling again. Unfortunately for me > (and for them) that results in them failing to hear my call. I'm quite > confident I'm there alright but the run stations are not leaving long > enough between calls for there to be much chance of my 16WPM relatively > weak call being heard. These stations aren't crocodiles - many are in the > super station category and definitely have the "ears" to hear me. This > seems to be a matter of operating technique, not technology. > > Last night I worked 19 of the 26 stations I called on the east coast. The > others should have been hearing me just as well. I seriously doubt it was > their ears were the problem as they were all big stations. It wasn't QRM > either as they weren't working anyone else. QRN wasn't an issue as far as I > could tell last night... All the stations I failed to work exhibited a > common behaviour of leaving only a matter of seconds between CQ calls. I > did struggle to work stations further west in e.g. LA and TX - even those > that were listening with great care, but that was down to propagation I > expect (the K was 2 at the time - see ON4UN for some interesting stats > about the probability of working the west coast of the USA from Europe when > the K index is > 1). The 7 guys I didn't work were in "easy" states like > NH, NY, PA, ME etc. where I did work at least two other stations of similar > capability. > > On topband, run stations need to leave longer between CQs than they do on > the higher bands to give themselves a chance to hear the weaker ones. Why > bother? On topband there is a higher proportion of stations that fall into > the "weaker" category than on the higher bands due to the necessity for > many to use compromised transmit antennas on 160. A run station's QSO total > depends on listening a bit harder and a bit longer on topband but this is > something that certain stations seem to have overlooked. It is interesting > that those run stations in the 4000 to 6000km zone that do leave a decent > gap (enough time for me to transmit my call twice at 16WPM) almost > invariably do hear me and consequently do get the QSO and the points as a > result :-) > > It's been my overwhelming experience on topband that it is beneficial to > slow things down a bit. I always use a lower WPM speed as experience has > shown it clearly makes me stand out more than if I send faster. For run > stations leaving bigger gaps between CQs on the higher bands will impact > rate but let's face it you aren't going to work a rate of 160 an hour on > topband very often, so generally there is time to listen for a bit longer. > Many little pistols wind back the CW WPM on topband as it increases the > likelihood of a successful QSO. It only works however if the other guy/gal > leave long enough between CQs to hear us in the first place! > Thanks for the contacts in the ARRL 160, it was fun - see you in the Stew > Perry in a few weeks. > > -- > Regards > Cormac, EI4HQ > [Cork/UTC] NNNN++++ > http://ei4hq.cloudaccess.net > http://www.corkharbourweather.ie > https://sites.google.com/site/cormacgebruers/< > http://ei4hq.cloudaccess.net/> > <http://www.corkharbourweather.ie/> > _______________________________________________ > UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK > _______________________________________________ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
