Working out-of-the band DX stations on SSB in DX Contests isn't a new
phenomenon. When I heard about it this weekend, at first I thought
maybe it was people who heard about the new 80 meter SSB frequencies and
erroneously assumed they were already effective (and that only a select
few knew about it).
However, I recall that I was the QSL manager for CQ WW SSB contest
operations from Barbados by K3KG and K4FJ plus others some years (as
8P9HR and 8P9Z) and Jack and Steve told me that I wouldn't have believed
the stations who called them on their own frequencies out of the US
bands. This was from 1987 through 2000. Because stations outside NA
count for more points than other NA stations, Jack and Steve were often
running on their own frequencies below 14150 or 21200 or 28300 or 7200
or 3750. So, the only way for US stations to work them was to go down
and do it illegally (or wait for them to move into or listen in the US
SSB band). The increase in recent years could be partially explained by
the increasing number of people who "point and shoot" at DX spots on the
computer, without necessarily thinking about the frequency the station
is on.
In order to minimize this problem, at NQ4I last weekend, Rick filtered
out all spots below 14150, 21200, and 28300. He couldn't do that on 40
and 75 meters for obvious reasons. In past years, a couple of times, I
caught my search and pounce operator trying to work a Spanish EC prefix
station on SSB below 21200 because he had grabbed a spot without
thinking about what frequency it was for. I guess that problem is
aleviated now that EC stations have more phone frequencies. We worked
many of them in the 15-M US phone band this weekend.
For the same reason, people need to remember to check and not just grab
spots that are too close to the upper limit of the bands on 15 and 20
and too close to the lower limit on 40 and 80. There are always a few
stations running on 21448 and above or on 14348 and above.
73,
John, K4BAI.
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