I did the majority of 80M operation at W1FJ for the recent ARRL SSB.
I, too, started out simplex on 80M. Rate as simplex was never great,
but I did get 3 hours of 40+ QSOs.
After making 6 QSOs in 30 min between 0340 and 0410, I tuned up above
3800 KHz and heard KC1XX,
K3LR, and a number of others working split, so I figured that I would
give it a go. When you're in the middle
of a 12-hour, there are few bad decisions.
I stayed split the rest of the contest. Oh, a couple of times the
second night I tried simplex again, for
5 minutes at a time, but I quickly saw the rate dive and I went back to
split.
Finding an Rx frequency was a challenge at times, complicated by the
fact that both US and European stations
could take your Rx freq away. But, after trying it both ways, my
conclusion is that split was the most efficient
way to make QSOs this past weekend.
Dennis NB1B
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