I'm a new comer from the west coast and I can add another 10 db to Jeff
Maass's comments. he pretty much says it well only we can add another 10db
to the signal attenuations, another 10 db to the frustration level from
listening to stations closer to the dx calling and calling right on top of
the dx or their listening freq. without listening... Contests are not
contests out here they are just another opportunity for a lot of stations to
be on the band and another possible state or country...We have no chance of
competing when you can work dx on a 20 ft high dipole and 100 watts on the
east coast and here it takes 1500 watts with a 13 db directivity factor for
receiving to maybe work 1 or 2 big gun dx stations from my area of the west
coast...We all get excited while trying to make the dx call and make
mistakes but I have no tolerance for the stations that call and call and
never let up ... My personal preference for stations including myself in a
pile up is to call maybe at 3 QRZ s at the most and then stand by for a few
moments listen to whats going on and try again... It may not seem like it at
times to the dx but we are listening out here on the west coast just hoping
for a good enough s/n ratio to work you... Lee K7tjr Oregon
|