G'day
I have had a number of 'food for thought' responses to my original email about the perspective from the DX end of a pile-up. The one from Paul N1BUG below has made me re-think my current way of operating. It is always good to see things from another's perspective. If the DCX conditions are good, outside of contests and if there is room, look for VK6VZ working split. Perhaps receiving 'UP 1' will mean me sending 'AGN AGN' less. ;-) Vy 73 Steve, VK6VZ >Perhaps a comment from the other side of that same opening? I called Steve a few times that morning but stopped because even with a 200 Hz filter and audio peaking it was difficult to hear when he came back to people through the callers. They were spread out some but it only takes a couple who call too long or with questionable/unfortunate timing to make things difficult when the DX is S7 and the callers are 20 to 30 over S9. Steve had a relatively small pile (10 callers at a time?) of reasonably well behaved DXers. For me it was marginally OK working simplex but I very likely might have missed it once or twice had he come back to me. I heard Steve answer a few stations who did not copy him right away due to the other callers (I'm assuming, because there were others still calling and they subsequently seemed to hear him just fine when in the clear). That may have slowed his potential QSO rate somewhat but not drastically. With a few more callers or a couple who are particularly eager it can easily go from that to total chaos. Of course there are times when there isn't enough space on the band for all DX with multiple callers to go split. 73, Paul N1BUG _______________________________________________ Stew Perry Topband Distance Challenge coming on December 29th.
