Another thing I've found is that sometimes a rare DXpedition has pileups
reduced in size during contests because a considerable number of people are
doing the contest. It is sometimes easier to work these DXpeditions during
contests.
73, Zack W9SZ
On Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 5:55 AM, Pete Smith N4ZR <n4zr@contesting.com>wrote:
> Well said, Charly. For most of my ham life I got into contests *in order
> to* work DX, because I was stuck with low power and wire antennas in the
> trees behind our townhouse.
>
> I think what we need is a way to get the word out about what times of day
> and on what bands hams in the rest of the world can expect to hear (and
> maybe even work!) Southeast Asian stations like yours. I know that if you
> asked me (I've only been on the air since 1954) I could not tell you with
> confidence when the openings occur between the US mid-Atlantic and HS-land.
> Sure, I could go look at VOACAP, but I suspect a lot of new guys, even
> ones with HF privileges, don't know how to use tools like that, and a lot
> of others have been frustrated when they realized that those predictions
> are averages, and don't reflect conditions on any particular day or weekend.
>
> Of course, you can go to the RBN and set filters so that it only displays
> stations heard in your area, and then select the zone or country you're
> interested in. The server will then look back a maximum of a week (it
> resets on Monday morning, UTC). Another tool that can help is ViewProp, by
> ZL2HAM. It is described at http://zl2ham.wikispaces.com/, and you can
> download the latest beta at http://zl2ham.wikispaces.com/. With ViewProp
> and a copy of DXAtlas from VE3NEA, you can download the RBN archive of
> spots from, say, the IARU HF contest, set your location, and play back the
> contest, showing when and where stations in your area were hearing/being
> heard, on all bands. You can even keep it running in the background,
> continuously, and see at a glance which bands opened over the last 24
> hours, and to what areas.It is a very neat way to painlessly learn about
> propagation and plan your operating time, whether you're a contester or a
> DXer.
>
> 73, Pete N4ZR
> Check out the Reverse Beacon Network at
> http://reversebeacon.net,
> blog at reversebeacon.blogspot.com.
> For spots, please go to your favorite
> ARC V6 or VE7CC DX cluster node.
>
>
> On 7/22/2013 4:23 AM, Charles Harpole wrote:
>
>> No real news to most of us but maybe more striking in signal-poor South
>> East Asia----- contests GET HAMS ON THE AIR. Then, no contests equals
>> lots
>> of artificially dead bands.
>>
>> Many times in week days, I can tune ALL of the HF bands and hear less than
>> ten ham-originated signals totally ! Think of it, most bands TOTALLY DEAD
>> and at any time day or night even with high flux times. And it is not
>> propagation's fault; there are just no hams on the air that would
>> propagate to me near Bangkok.
>>
>> THEN comes a huge contest weekend and all the bands light up with hundreds
>> of signals, maybe thousands (the thousands calling me in zone 26, for
>> example). Twenty and fifteen have no blank spaces to slip in to start a
>> CQ
>> and a run!
>>
>> The fact is that without contests (and DX chasing) ham radio would appear
>> to have disappeared if listening around. 12 meters with less than 25
>> spots! Imagine !
>>
>> Contests and DX sell radios and antennas; get people improving their
>> rigs;
>> and get hams off the Internet and back on the air.
>>
>> Tell all this to the grumpy few rag chew groups too lazy to move to the
>> WARC bands. But, get on the air, hams! Bands are open and waiting.
>>
>> 73
>>
>> Charly, HS0ZCW
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>>
>>
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