Very true, but geography and propagation make that a pretty muddled picture.
In most DX contests where I'm trying to run Europe in the morning on 20m from
here in Arizona, my biggest problem is trying to hear the replies through the
East Coast QRM. If I didn't have really narrow capability there would be no
prayer of copying them, and since I have a tall mountain ridge directly west of
me that makes Japan/Pacific marginal for me, Europe is my most fertile source
of contacts.
While I'm firmly in the camp of those who decry bad manners on the bands, I
guess I don't really understand some of the negative attitudes toward better
technical capabilities expressed here by some. Even if I didn't have a rig
with narrow capability, I'd like for the guy on the other end to have one so
that he could pick my callsign out of the chaos. We'd all be better off and
have more fun if everyone had clean signals (i.e., no phase noise and no key
clicks) and receivers with knife edge bandpass.
I don't even buy the implication that better capability for some inhibits
newcomers with lesser stations from joining the contesting ranks. That's just
counter intuitive. More "slots" means more opportunity for activity, and
narrower receiver bandwidths on the other end means more likelihood a weaker
signal gets heard. I guarantee that I am able to work FAR more weaker stations
with my K3 than I did with my 756Pro, so I'm not the only one who benefits.
73,
Dave AB7E
------Original Mail------
From: "Barry" <w2up@comcast.net>
To: <CQ-Contest@CONTESTING.COM>
Sent: Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:00:46 -0700
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] RX Heresy? - Key Clicks
While you may be able to get within 200 Hz of the next run station with
your shiny K3, don't forget that the guy on the other end probably
doesn't have one. He has to be able to copy you, too.
Barry W2UP
--
Barry Kutner, W2UP Lakewood, CO
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
|