I think that's a big part of it ("Maybe most ops had their filter
dialed down low?")
Nowadays we're becoming accustomed to being able to dial down filter
widths to a few hundred Hz and hear *nothing* outside that small
window. When a pileup grows on a DX station, people quickly realize
that the DX station has their filter width narrowed down and they have
to be within that 100-200Hz to be heard, in fact that's the only area
the DX station is listening to.
In the last few major DX contests (as DX) with increasingly crowded
conditions, It seems to me that having an effective roofing filter is
critical - especially on bands like 20m where EVERYONE is LOUD and the
band is super crowded. If you don't have the ability to really narrow
down your listening space, you are at a relative disadvantage, IMHO.
In this case, using XIT to get you slightly off frequency may or may
not help. You may get enough XIT to differentiate your signal from the
mush, but you may also XIT yourself right outside the DX station's
listening window. That is, unless you're terribly loud on the other
end :)
Jeff N6GQ
On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 08:24, Mike Fatchett W0MU <w0mu@w0mu.com> wrote:
> Rick and all,
>
> The pileups on Sunday became insane. Any DX that would LOUD had huge
> pileups and for the most part I would agree were pretty much zero beat.
> I know some of the DX had to be going crazy! One station finally broke
> down and was calling for 7's and 0's and that pileup was pretty tough.
>
> I tried calling a number of stations a bit off frequency with little
> luck so it was back to zero beat. Maybe most ops had their filter
> dialed down low? With skimmer and RBN you can't really hide anymore. I
> noticed a few ops changed frequencies in an attempt to flee a packet
> spot bomb.
>
> I found that I had better luck working weaker stations from Colorado
> with 100 watts than the very loud stations who had huge pileups.
>
> I look forward to you remote station write up as we have hopes to buy a
> place in the Carib where we can put up a "small" station.
>
> Mike W0MU
>
>
>
> On 2/21/2011 6:07 AM, K6VVA - Rick wrote:
>> During my part-time long haul high-latency Internet remote operation as
>> KP2CW in the ARRL CW DX Contest this past weekend, compared to observations
>> as VP2VVA in 2009, I'll ballpark about a TEN FOLD INCREASE in the frequency
>> (pun) of a unique type of packet cluster related pileup problem. I predict
>> this will get worse year after year.
>>
>>
>>
>> Not just your basic run-of-the-mill contest mini-pileups, but of the type
>> where everyone was exactly ZERO BEAT (or within a few Hz) apparently as a
>> result of point-and-click with no single station loud enough to rise above
>> the pack. I'm usually pretty good at grabbing partial calls (or fractions
>> thereof) to respond to, but at times with a deluge of S9+20dB signals
>> (possibly just the top 'layer') all starting and ending as a unison ZERO
>> BEAT 'pumping mass', it was impossible. The swarm would start and stop,
>> start and stop in unison, until someone finally someone woke up and moved
>> off dead center a bit or slipped in a QRQ call during the momentary lull.
>> What a time waster for everyone. During several of these episodic events, I
>> actually sent 'you guys are all zero beat' in hopes the sharper ops would
>> grasp what was happening on my end and take evasive action. Without some
>> kind of head's up, who can really tell what's going on unless they are on
>> the 'other end' ?
>>
>>
>>
>> So.......
>>
>>
>>
>> Having a simple Q-Signal to alert everyone as to this type of 'Ground Hog
>> Day' scenario on the other end of the pileup could be productive for all.
>> I'd suggest 'QSO' (for 'Spread Out'), but that one is already taken in the
>> list of Q-Signals. Therefore, my suggestion is to use 'QZB' (a/k/a You guys
>> are ALL ZERO BEAT) as a head's up to move UP or DOWN a tad from dead center
>> for these types of point-and-click packet spot pileup nightmares. Checking
>> my log, I did not find one single entry for a station with the suffix 'QZB'
>> which is good :^)
>>
>>
>>
>> For those interested in Remote Contesting, I'll include some details on the
>> KP2CW 'tragedies and triumphs' experienced over the weekend in my upcoming
>> 3830 post.
>>
>>
>>
>> FWIW& 73...
>>
>>
>>
>> Rick, K6VVA * The Locust
>>
>> Remote Contesting Advocate
>>
>>
>>
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