> The good news is that a DX station (other than JAs) can get a nice clear
> frequency on 1832 or so. Obviously, in the old days when we all worked
> split (because the JAs had a small window up the band) this problem did not
> exist.
>
>
I tried calling CQ in the window at various points during the contest,
but only in the last hour and a half did it yield any results. I
thought that, although 32 appeared clear to me, there were probably
little pistols CQing that I couldn't hear, but were masking my signals
in NA. In a private discussion with WE3C however, John told me that the
window was pretty clear for most of the test.
At the same time as I was not getting results in the window, I could
move off in S+P mode, and usually be heard by the guys I called, so I
seemed to have propagation. I must say, however, that the Q often
started with the other guy hearing something, sending ??, my repeating,
and gradually building the contact from there - not exactly armchair copy!
So why did I have no results from calling in the window? I can't
explain it. Just put it down to another of the oddities of this band!
When I did finally achieve some results by calling CQ on 32, my rate was
the best of the whole test - 14 Q's in the last hour compared with just
under 9 per hour averaged over the 9 hours of darkness.
Greg, ZL3IX
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