Hi Steve,
I listen to the pile ups some mornings. Its an unruly mess up here.
One thing that would help is to work split. Then, when people call and call
(and some do call endlessly), you can have a QSO or two without the long
callers wiping you out and slowing down your rate.
Listening up outside the DX area, or down below the DX area would be a
great idea IF you give a specific frequency for the operators and stick to
that general frequency, so you don't trash up 5 or ten kHz with a spread
out pile up.
> Over the last few days, I have received some e-mails from people saying
that
> they have been trying to work VK6 for a while and can never get
> past/through/around the dreaded pile-up because the large pile of
regulars
> who are calling me. My usual reply in these situations is that I always
> have an ear open for the new callsigns and if you are on the band
regularly
> enough, you will always work me eventually, as long as your signal is
> audible at this end. Just to prove this, why, I even worked one station
> running 100W and a modest antenna twice on Sunday night - once using his
own
> call and once for his club station.
Since the problem is new contacts missing you, running low power and making
a string of contacts seems counterproductive for allowing new stations to
work you.
Wouldn't it be better to just run normal power and get it done with
quickly, than drag out a contact with a marginal signal just to prove you
can make the contact with ten dB less signal?
> To help the odds in the very good conditions, I guess it is a matter of
me
> (and the other DX) trying some 'QSX up 1' type stuff in a bid to spread
> stations out a little bit and make things even fairer still. On the other
> hand, when the band is crowded during good conditions, QSXing can be a
good
> way to upset people by taking up bandwidth.
The reason it takes up so much BW and "ruins" the band is people
intentionally spread out. The JA's use a great system, they send the
frequency they listen to and they mean it! Call up or down one, and you get
no contact!
DXing used to be so much better early on, when we always worked split.
There is no reason why we can't do that again. It also might help if you
ran the show, and said what you want to do. If you just say "new only" and
stick to it, that should give the new guys a fair chance. When you feel
like rag chewing, which VK3ZL does quite often, then rag chew. No one owns
your pleasure except you. It's a big band.
73 Tom
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