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?
--
|