A few Hz bandwidth from XZ0A/XZ1N
The success rules Bill posted are right on task. I must
especially echo Bills #3. An absolutely incredible amount
of time was wasted by folks calling over the top of the
station I picked out to work. Once I picked out a station,
I would stay with it until I believed the QSO was complete.
Sometimes this was TEN minutes or more, and much of this
time was wasted by the inconsiderate calling of other
stations. Despite 2KW and a pretty good TX antenna, my
pleas for XX station ONLY typically fell on deaf ears. I
NEVER took tail enders, I NEVER answered a station "out of
sequence". I made a strong effort to operate in a very
consistent manner so that folks could reasonably predict
when to start calling - and when not to - even when they
were having trouble copying me. I do believe we could have
worked at least 20% more stations if folks had been more
orderly during the openings we did have.
We all understand the fickle nature of propagation on Top
Band (it intrigues us or we wouldn't be here!), and any
competent operator will accept the occasional re-call needed
if a QSO was not certain, or to a limited degree, a
duplicate call the next opening to complete the contact. I
must say that there are some folks who severely abuse that
opportunity. On all three trips, we had a few stations who
insisted upon trying to work us EVERY night.... spending
several minutes digging a signal out of the noise and pile
of signals to find a quadruple duplicate is one of the most
frustrating and annoying experiences I can think of. I DO
have my personal "deaf" list, but, in all fairness, it is
still short, and - sofar - doesn't contain any stateside
stations (on top band). Unfortunately, the best thing a DX
station can do is just make the contact and continue. It
seems to be the ONLY way to get these folks to shut up for a
night. It is difficult for me to understand why these
operators would deliberately, or through ignorance, deprive
another station of the opportunity to work us.
I am intrigued by the "pulse" QSX change concept. I intend
to make use of it on our next expeditions - presuming the
signal strengths are sufficient for the "instruction" to be
heard clearly. I acknowledge it uses more bandwidth, but,
topband has plenty except under contest conditions. I will
take that into account when choosing my transmit frequency,
primary receive frequency, and "alternate". I believe it
likely I would pick a substantially removed alternate QSX.
I am interested in hearing comments from DX operators who
have used this process successfully on top band. The method
does depend on folks being able to copy you moderately well,
a luxury topband does not often provide.
Note that EACH Rule says LISTEN! You can't work em if you
don't know what was sent to you (or the other guy)!
I hope my observations are of some use and do not result in
an increase in the noise level on the reflector.
73
Robin Critchell, WA6CDR, XZ1N/XZ0A
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