At least in the old days you could clear some space with key clicks (-;
And to think I started contesting with a Drake 2B (talk about overload!) in
63 before going rather crazy with a major modded 75A4 in 65.
I still have that A4 and its a better battle conditions 160/80 CW radio than
filter loaded TS-940 and TS-950SD's using 250 and 400 Hz filters. It uses
cascaded 200 and 500Hz filters.
Carl
KM1H
----- Original Message -----
From: "Guy Olinger K2AV" <olinger@bellsouth.net>
To: "Bill and Liz McHugh" <magoo@isp.ca>
Cc: <topband@contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 1:17 PM
Subject: Re: Topband: UNOCCUPIED BANDWIDTH
> 250 Hertz with a K3 is quite narrow. I open up to my 450 Hz 8 pole
> (marketed as 400), and unless I'm desperate, leave a hole alone if I can't
> put runs above and below fairly well down the skirts. That said,
> encroachment that only the 350 Hz 8 pole (marketed as 250) will handle is
> getting to be almost standard. We are not yet at the point of needing a
> true 250 Hz 8 pole filter.
>
> Listening at 100 Hz bandwidth will often just find the space between two
> stations separated by 400-500 Hz.
>
> When you find a "hole" best to find its center and width by extending
> WIDTH
> control until you can just barely hear the stations above and below. 200
> Hz
> "holes" are not really opportunities.
>
> 73, Guy.
>
> On Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 9:16 AM, Bill and Liz McHugh <magoo@isp.ca> wrote:
>
>> Normally in the CQ160CW contest there is a wall of NA signals across the
>> band. But this year I found many frequencies which appeared to be
>> unoccupied.
>>
>> I dropped onto a few of these, sent QRL several times and nobody
>> responded.
>> I sat on some of these frequencies just listening and nobody appeared
>> for
>> minutes at a time. Eventually somebody showed up, sent QRL and went to
>> work. This happend both Friday and Saturday nights all up and down the
>> band.
>>
>> Initially, I discovered these "holes" with the K3's bandwidth set at 100
>> hz
>> but then I opened it up to 150, 200, 250 and still nobody was there. I
>> found that a bit strange!
>>
>> Was the number of NA participants down this year? Certainly the DX was
>> out
>> in force as I heard some 60 DX entities in my S&P over a few hours having
>> fun.
>>
>> Anyone else notice a similar occurrence?
>>
>> Bill VE3CSK
>> _______________________________________________
>> UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
>>
> _______________________________________________
> UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
_______________________________________________
UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
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