Hi All,
This weekend I spent a bit of time dipping in to the ARRL 160m contest.
Something that has struck me a lot over the past few contests on topband
struck me yet again last night and I figured it was time I put pen to
paper. I think (hope) it is something fellow contesters might appreciate
being reminded about as it will help increase their topband score:
I'm a pretty typical little pistol station; on topband I run 100w into a
base loaded vertical that is just shy of 18m high. It has a reasonable
ground system under it - 44 radials that are a quarter wave on 80m and that
radial system is also connected to my 64 quarter wave radial system for my
40m vertical (that is in the direction of USA/Canada as it happens). I live
on the shores of the Atlantic ocean so I'm luckier than most in terms of
far field. I use a K9AY for listening that is over one wavelength from my
transmit antenna and has a buried coax feed. These two antennas, 100w and a
good radio (Yaesu FT-2000 with AC0C roofing filter mod) are a balanced
combination in practice - lots of time on the air suggests my ears and
mouth are pretty well matched.
One pattern that lots of operating on topband has thrown up is this; if the
band is open during the night (not special conditions around
sunset/sunrise), I'm usually quite audible (but far from rock crushing)
into the areas about 4000-6000km E/W from my QTH e.g. to the east coast of
the USA. In a normal DX situation I'll call at a relatively low speed
(16WPM) until I get one through i.e. when the frequency is sufficiently QRM
& QRN free. My callsign will generally be copied by the DX station after
two (perhaps three) repeats. After that we'll have a pretty solid QSO
(provided band conditions aren't fluctuating rapidly).
In a contest situation however things too often go differently; too many
run stations treat topband just like the higher bands and call CQ *but only
listen for a very brief period* before calling again. Unfortunately for me
(and for them) that results in them failing to hear my call. I'm quite
confident I'm there alright but the run stations are not leaving long
enough between calls for there to be much chance of my 16WPM relatively
weak call being heard. These stations aren't crocodiles - many are in the
super station category and definitely have the "ears" to hear me. This
seems to be a matter of operating technique, not technology.
Last night I worked 19 of the 26 stations I called on the east coast. The
others should have been hearing me just as well. I seriously doubt it was
their ears were the problem as they were all big stations. It wasn't QRM
either as they weren't working anyone else. QRN wasn't an issue as far as I
could tell last night... All the stations I failed to work exhibited a
common behaviour of leaving only a matter of seconds between CQ calls. I
did struggle to work stations further west in e.g. LA and TX - even those
that were listening with great care, but that was down to propagation I
expect (the K was 2 at the time - see ON4UN for some interesting stats
about the probability of working the west coast of the USA from Europe when
the K index is > 1). The 7 guys I didn't work were in "easy" states like
NH, NY, PA, ME etc. where I did work at least two other stations of similar
capability.
On topband, run stations need to leave longer between CQs than they do on
the higher bands to give themselves a chance to hear the weaker ones. Why
bother? On topband there is a higher proportion of stations that fall into
the "weaker" category than on the higher bands due to the necessity for
many to use compromised transmit antennas on 160. A run station's QSO total
depends on listening a bit harder and a bit longer on topband but this is
something that certain stations seem to have overlooked. It is interesting
that those run stations in the 4000 to 6000km zone that do leave a decent
gap (enough time for me to transmit my call twice at 16WPM) almost
invariably do hear me and consequently do get the QSO and the points as a
result :-)
It's been my overwhelming experience on topband that it is beneficial to
slow things down a bit. I always use a lower WPM speed as experience has
shown it clearly makes me stand out more than if I send faster. For run
stations leaving bigger gaps between CQs on the higher bands will impact
rate but let's face it you aren't going to work a rate of 160 an hour on
topband very often, so generally there is time to listen for a bit longer.
Many little pistols wind back the CW WPM on topband as it increases the
likelihood of a successful QSO. It only works however if the other guy/gal
leave long enough between CQs to hear us in the first place!
Thanks for the contacts in the ARRL 160, it was fun - see you in the Stew
Perry in a few weeks.
--
Regards
Cormac, EI4HQ
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