Gee whiz, I remember, in the not to distant past, when we went for years
without NWT, maybe 1 station from WV and ME. At least now the only section
with limited participation is NWT and Jay is doing everything humanly
possible to insure we have it during ARRL contests.
I was very disappointed with Jay's original posting when Jay listed ways to
help work him. Jay said: "1. Watch the posts and work us immediately so that
the frequency is not stolen." Not number 3 or 4 but number 1. I have, over
the years, worked Jay during various ARRL contests, there are even a couple
confirmed on LOTW, and I 'NEVER' used packet to work him. I had a contest
contact in the late 80's, or early 90's, where Jay answered my CQ. I hold
contacts, like those, very dearly because I got NWT on my own, without
packet telling me how to find my contacts.
The world is not going to end because someone didn't get a 'Clean-Sweep',
using packet to find all the sections. Some of you might try SS without
packet and see if you're clever enough to get close to a 'Sweep'.
MAL N7MAL
BULLHEAD CITY, AZ
www.citlink.net/~suzyq/N7mal.htm
www.geocities.com/n7mal
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chuck" <k3ft@erols.com>
To: "PVRC Reflector" <pvrc@mailman.qth.net>; "CQ Contest"
<cq-contest@contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, November 17, 2003 8:48 PM
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Comments from VY1JA - NT
Greetings fellow seekers of the 'Clean Sweep'
VY1JA sent me the following. with only 233 Q's it looks like ARRL may be
forced to offer a mug that says 'I ALMOST got a clean-sweep in the 2003 SS!'
Big :-)
or perhaps for those who swept both weekends.. the mug can say 'The Few!
The Proud! 'The Clean Sweep!'"
(with humble apologies to the United States Marine Corps)
Jay's comments may prove of value to us for the 'next one'.
73
Chuck K3FT
=============
Chuck,
With conditions this poor, both Bob (VY1MB) and I (VY1JA) had very poor
results.
His Multi-OP and my single op each netted only 230 QSOs. Both stations were
worked hard throughout the contest, with the exception that I had to stop to
teach TaeKwon-Do and lost the peak that happened from your sunset on
Saturday afternoon, and then I had to pick my son up from work and lost the
peak from the same period on Sunday.
It was during those two peaks, the ones at your sunset that we had 10 minute
periods of propagation from your area, but often people had their beams the
wrong way and did not stop to realize that the gray-line was with them.
Bob has those two brief runs in his log, but I do not.
Make sure that your people know how to use our sunrise and sunset time and
if there is a sunrise or sunset time in your area that is near it, we have a
gray-line boost that really makes a difference.
This year, our sunrise was at approximately 1715 UTC and sunset was at 0015
UTC.
I have asked Bob to send me an e-mail of his log and will carefully examine
the data. I plan to put together a clear set of guidelines for working NT
under conditions of poor propagation.
During the contest, I found that I could not maintain a frequency, because
even though I was posted to a particular frequency, I was not heard and
other stations in the south would take it away. Nothing wrong with this, it
just meant that our watery signals could not get through to those that
needed the QSO.
I was extremely pleased by the great ops that would just volunteer to give
up their run frequency to us and then post us on that frequency. It meant a
few more contacts until someone else in the south that did not hear us, took
the frequency over.
A few things will help
1 Watch the posts and work us immediately so that the frequency is not
stolen.
2 List the sunrise and sunset times and especially the overlapping gray-line
times and aim your antenna the right way at that time.
3 Remember that we have one-way and most of the time even though we are a
weak whisper to you, your signal is strong here... Call even if you hear us
just faintly.
It was interesting that a number of stations in lower Canada experienced the
one-way propagation phenomenon for the first time this year and now
understand what it is and how it works. To many this has always been an
unbelievable myth. Check recent posts to the CQ-Contest reflector.
J.
============================
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