ARRL 10-Meter Contest
Call: N9NC
Operator(s): N9NC
Station: N9NC
Class: SO CW Unlimited HP
QTH: NH
Operating Time (hrs): 26
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
CW: 2258 170
SSB:
-------------------
Total: 2258 170 Total Score = 1,535,440
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
The band overall was pretty good, and of course lots of activity.
Having said that, it wasn't quite as good to Eastern EU and points east this
time: weaker and shorter openings, and no UA9/UN at all.
The JA opening Saturday may have been just a few minutes long.
Sunday was better and interesting, JA skew path ~290 deg, for around an hour.
Very slow fading.
Worked all US States, all called me but DC, who I found late Sunday afternoon,
skimmer didn't help on this one.
Used AR cluster’s ‘skimvalid’ filter, again worked great.
No busted/extra spots on the band map.
Operating item to ponder:
Had a couple of stations late in the contest tell me I was a dupe, but they
were
not in my log. What could cause this?
Put aside the obvious case that I may have busted their call at some point, or
failed to push enter on an earlier S&P QSO (usually only happens after
sleep
deprivation, N/A for this contest).
N.B. This is not new info, and has probably been covered in Contest
University.
This seemed to be happening enough this weekend to make note of it for anyone
who might actually read this whole post.
Hypothesis:
Because of the skip zone on 10, it is really easy to get multiple
stations CQing very close to each other.
This is often visible on the band map
with two stations virtually on the same freq. Sometimes, one station may
not make it on to the band map (if A is way louder than B, for example).
Anyway, is entirely plausible that the 2 CQing stations don’t hear each
other.
Along comes a caller, C, to the louder, station A.
Station B, having just ended his CQ about the same time, hears caller C.
Poor C may or may not hear both answers, but typically intended to work A,
so only A is logged.
Result: A and C have a valid QSO in their logs.
But station B logs C, while B is Not In Log at C (NIL, not to be confused
with nil, or null, for us coders out there), and will be penalized.
I guess B is really the poor one.
Possible solutions:
If you are caller C, and notice two simultaneous responses, just go ahead and
send B a report after your response to A, and log it.
If you do this while A is CQing again, he will be none the wiser.
If A hears you, �" even better -
he may be alerted that his frequency isn’t as clear as he thought, and then
can take appropriate action.
B will he happy (no NIL, which he didn't know he was going to get anyway),
and also, if trying to be aware, B is enabled to realize something is amiss,
since he thought you already sent the report the first time.
If you are station A or B:
If you notice callers slightly off freq from most others, or with slightly
unexpected timing or absent responses, you should suspect this scenario is
happening to you, now.
A selection of things I do sometimes to discriminate �"
even when there are no overt signs of trouble:
Slightly delay your initial report to caller C, if you hear C coming back
earlier than should be possible, then he was really calling A, not you.
Don’t send any report, but a ‘?’ or nothing, to get valid callers for you
to
repeat.
Ask C for a quick simple repeat, like NR? Valid callers will all respond
and with expected timing.
Even at risk of slowing your rate, send caller C's
call again in your final TU, then, don't immediately sign your call or CQ etc.
The more astute ops will re-confirm with a further TU, and the more paranoid
ones (perhaps validly so in this case) will again repeat their call.
Of course don’t do all these at the same time, or very frequently, or your
rate
will dry up. Equally, you want a solidly clear frequency and a minimum of
NILs.
As a general proposition for anyone CQing:
Just work and log anyone who calls you, even if they are a dupe.
Log programs identify dupes, which aren’t counted.
Moreover, you aren’t penalized for dupes.
Since C didn’t log B, he will likely come across B an hour or a day later,
and want the QSO.
B's choice is easy: work a perceived dupe at no cost, or risk a NIL penalty.
Indeed, it usually takes longer to convey the 'dupe' idea and recover your
rhythm than to just work the real or perceived dupe in first place.
And if/when C insists to make the Q, you will have to log him anyway.
I hope someone finds this digression useful.
Here's hoping for yet one more go with 10 in ARRL DX 2015!
TU 73,
Tom N9NC
FT-1000 MP Mark V
Alpha 87A
Homebrew 5 el OWA yagi at 26’
Balanced fed dipole at 70’
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