After the terrific conditions that existed on 160m between Western Australia
and North America the past weekend, I decided to put fingers to keyboard on
a somewhat delicate matter. It is a problem that just about every station
that is termed DX faces - how do you deal with a pile-up in a fair manner?
During the good conditions that can prevail, in a somewhat unpredictable but
spectacular manner, during the winter topband season, I work three types of
operator - the died-in-wool topband types (like myself) whom I work every
season (and some cases every week); the first timers, who may have a modest
antenna or use low power; and - a category which fits somewhere between the
two - the died-in-the-wool topband types who have turned to using a modest
antenna or low power.
The trouble with good conditions is that everybody gets excited and calls
and it is hard to please/work everybody. Although I try and work my old QRO
mates, my old QRP mates and first timers, someone inevitably gets left out.
Not that VK6VZ is anything special by the way, it's just that I happen to
carry the tag 'DX' and live in a Zone that you can count the number of
active topbanders on the fingers of one hand.
Actually, I'm not knocking the VK6VZ position on the 160m food chain - it's
a nice position to be in, apart being so far from everywhere else and never
hearing South America.
When conditions are really good, I try and give the QRP types and the first
timers a VK6 contact, because it's the only shot they get. On the other
hand, I also like to say hello to my old QRO mates, who are the life and the
soul of the band for me, especially when conditions return to their usual
awfulness.
Over the last few days, I have received some e-mails from people saying that
they have been trying to work VK6 for a while and can never get
past/through/around the dreaded pile-up because the large pile of regulars
who are calling me. My usual reply in these situations is that I always
have an ear open for the new callsigns and if you are on the band regularly
enough, you will always work me eventually, as long as your signal is
audible at this end. Just to prove this, why, I even worked one station
running 100W and a modest antenna twice on Sunday night - once using his own
call and once for his club station.
The station that was worked twice uses what he calls the 'constant presence'
approach to DXing - which is what I was taught by my 160m elmer as the only
way to work DX on the band - you've got to be there every day, for as long
as possible, ready, listening and calling as smartly as you can.
To help the odds in the very good conditions, I guess it is a matter of me
(and the other DX) trying some 'QSX up 1' type stuff in a bid to spread
stations out a little bit and make things even fairer still. On the other
hand, when the band is crowded during good conditions, QSXing can be a good
way to upset people by taking up bandwidth.
Recently, I had this startingly unoriginal idea about special 'first
timer/QRP' nights, but after some thought realised these would inevitably
fall on nights when the 160m conditions were bad...
What it comes down to this is us DX will always do their best to keep
everone happy, by whatever means is at our disposal - receiving antennas,
QSX 1 up, etc. However, anyone out there who really wants to work VK6 or
any other 160m DX can help the DX and themselves by putting up the biggest
Tx antenna they can and running as much power as they are legally
entitled/can afford to make our job as DX easy as possible.
After all, this 160m DXing is a cooperative sort of thing AND a competitive
sort of thing after all. Sometimes it makes my ears - and head - ache - and
it ain't always just the band noise that does it. Ouch, who threw that
brickbat?!!
Vy 73,
Steve, VK6VZ
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