G'day all and a very merry Christmas
It has been interesting reading the comments about DX stations on 160m
generally not working split. I thought having the perspective from someone
who is generally perceived as 'DX'.
One of the main reasons I don't usually need to work split is that
topbanders are such good CW operators! In general, people calling me know
to use spread out a bit in my receiver passband. Like most I generally use
400Hz CW filtering and calling about 200Hz away from the main 'wolf pack' is
a good way of grabbing my attention as I scan the pack using the RIT.
Calling on the exact same frequency as another caller is not a good idea.
Sending your call twice is always a good idea, even if there doesn't appear
to be any other callers.
The reason for the latter is that the main problem for us down in the
southern hemisphere in copying callers is usually the QRN level, rather than
QRM from stations all calling at once exactly the same frequency.
On the 16 December, there was a nice opening into the eastern USA with
signals to S6, but the static and general atmospheric noise was about the
same level - a common phenomenon. As it is summer in the southern half of
the world, it is REALLY noisy! I ended up asking for heaps of repeats
mainly because of the noise.
The end result is after operating 160m during summer for 17 years, my
(57-year old) hearing is about as good as a longtime drummer in a heavy
metal band.
AGN.AGN.
Vy 73
Steve, VK6VZ
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Stew Perry Topband Distance Challenge coming on December 29th.
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