Hi John,
I operated the contest two weekends ago. I had a two
radio setup so I actually listened to my own signal a few
times. I was concerned because my monitor output sounded
kind of crappy on 10 meters (like I had RF in my audio), but
when I listened to the end-to-end over the air signal it sounded
pretty good. Anyone with a single-op two-radio setup (SO2R),
which is very common in contesting these days, should be able
to do this sort of test without even slowing down. Likewise
multiops typically have at least one spare rig for multiplier
spotting, so they too should be able to spot check their TX
quality. Nevertheless, I heard a lot of garbage out there. Many
signals were so overprocessed that they actually reduced
intelligibility.
>From what I understand, the ARRL OO's were out in force
reminding people of where the band edges are located.
Perhaps they could also start serving notice on those people
with 80 grit audio.
73 de Mike, W4EF.....................
----- Original Message -----
From: "John T. M. Lyles" <jtml@lanl.gov>
To: <amps@contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2002 11:51 AM
Subject: [Amps] 10 Meters
> I was mobile QRP (5 watts) this past weekend, while crossing USA in
> automobile. 10 meters was hot, lotta DX.
> I was was surprised by a number of sounding stations. A lot of high
> powered stations in Europe, Asia and Carribean were overdriven
> (obviously amplified) and had their audio so compressed and
> overloaded that it was painful to hear. I suppose that they believe
> that they have what it takes to crack through the QRM. It was hard
> to hear stateside transmissions, but I noted that they also tended to
> the same extreme. There WERE some nice sounding transmissions, mostly
> casual QSOs between hams that didn't last only 10 seconds (just long
> enough for a 'five by nine' report). I don't mean to poo poo contests
> and DX chasing, but the sound of some is less than desirable.
>
> There was also a lot of tuner-uppers (carriers, high speed dits, and
> whistles and hellos) on the band, who don't know to use a dummy load
> and completely obliterate someones QSO. Since I had little to compete
> with, I stayed away from pileups, have to say that I mostly turned
> off the radio in disgust, with the sheer quantity of LIDs who stomp
> on others. But then again, only the worse and loudest were noteworthy
> to be mentioned here, and there were plenty of nice sounding stations
> as well. Since this is the contesting list, I am 'venting' here. No
> one on this list would sound like that, right?
>
> --
> _______________________________________________
> Amps mailing list
> Amps@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/amps
>
|