Barry,
I hear what you're saying re: Tip #1. In this particular case, he was mentioned
three times so I felt fairly comfortable. For the most part, I didn't bother to
read the cluster at all because, once spotted, a rare station would have a
gazillion people already descending on him. I pretty much just scanned the band
to find stations I hadn't worked. As it was, I pretty well worked almost every
station I could hear over about S5. That's S9 +20 for the rest of you.
Regarding your Tip #2, however, if I gave up after 30-60 seconds I wouldn't have
worked anybody. Must admit, however, that I took over an hour and a half to
work Marti Laine (op from EA8BH) on 80 meters. Every few minutes he would
change his listening frequency. I'd speed dial to the new freq. and just knew I
was the first one there. Not to be. I'm willing to bet he heard me, but just
wanted to see how many times he could get me to change freqs. I finally wore
him out, and I'm willing to bet he came back just to get rid of me.
In all seriousness, though, it was a delight listening to him manage a
frequency. He'd QRZ and pick up three or four complete or partial calls. Then
he'd work through each of them at almost a leisurely pace. Then another QRZ to
pick up a few more. Any new contester who wants to learn how to operate a
contest would be well served to take the time to just sit and listen to him for
a while. The man is a master, and I was delighted to work him for a four band
sweep.
73, Bob W7BJ
----- Original Message -----
From: Barry
To: Bob Gates ; cq-contest
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 6:09 AM
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Splqdecripity
Tip #1: Never depend on the Cluster for a callsign, especially if
it's a difficult-to-copy call. There's a good chance it's wrong.
Ask Tom, 8P1A, how many pileups started and they were all dupes
because someone spotted him as AP1A.
Tip#2: If you can't get the call in a reasonable amount of time (30-
60 secs?), move on - especially when it's not multiplier. There are
enough other stations to work.
73,
Barry W2UP
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