Interesting thread this, I’m enjoying it. Here are some of my thoughts.
I usually enter assisted in CW contests and use the RBN feed but I
rather think the RBN has become a victim of its own success.
A little about my setup. I filter the RBN feed firstly through VE7CC
software which is then fed into the excellent ViewProp where I further
select a suitable capture area, filter on signal strength and wpm. Now
even with a heavily filtered feed, my bandmap during CQWW, where I did
single band 40, was typically populated with around 180 runners at any
one time.
So if you’re CQ-ing and hitting European skimmers, you will instantly
appear on my bandmap, providing those skimmers are within my capture
area and you’re not already in my log HI HI. The problem is, you are
just one of 180 other runners who are in the bandmap.
The RBN has been a massive game changer of course, it’s a great
equaliser which doesn’t just spot the rare DX but ALL runners.
You’ve discovered you’re hitting European skimmers, just be patient. We
Europeans WILL get to you, as we work our way through our heavily
populated bandmaps.
On another note, this year in CQWW I set my cousin (G7KMT) up with a
skimmer, he lives 1 mile from my station. We used a Butternut HF6V to
feed his SDR and his antenna is almost identical to my own contest vertical.
Abiding by the rules, I allowed his skimmer to feed the RBN. The single
most useful skimmer to me during CQWW was my cousins, as I could
guarantee whatever it spotted I could definitely hear. This made S&P
very efficient.
If you do run your own skimmer, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE make it public by
feeding it into the RBN.
There is nothing to stop you from then filtering the incoming RBN feed
so heavily afterwards so that you only see your own local skimmer spots.
73
Dez, G3WW / M6W
Gerry, W1VE wrote:
Europe opened to NA very early on 40m this weekend; it was runable from
K2LE by
13:30 local both Saturday and Sunday.
When I would call CQ, the RBN would light up like a Christmas tree from EU
skimmers with very good reports.
However, little would call in until I was manually spotted by a caller, and
a pile ensued.
BTW, congrats to the RBN team for quickly bringing the system back up after
it died!
(They exceeded a PHP config threshold)... Essentially rebooting CQWW!! :-)
73, Gerry W1VE @ K2LE this weekend
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