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Re: Topband: My take on ARRL 160

To: topband@contesting.com
Subject: Re: Topband: My take on ARRL 160
From: "Gary Smith" <Gary@ka1j.com>
Reply-to: Gary@ka1j.com
Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2011 03:27:52 -0500
List-post: <topband@contesting.com">mailto:topband@contesting.com>
I'm using a K3 with pretty much all the bells & whistles sans FM & 2 
meters. It's calibrated "perfectly" with WWV and I know it's on 
frequency that's displayed. I was S&P for all but the early daylight 
hours when I called CQ to add a few extra Q's from the other S&Ps out 
there. 

When I'm in a CW contest and the band is crowded, I run my digital 
filter at 50 Hz with a 250 Hz crystal filter engaged so I'm pretty 
much dead on someone's transmit frequency and I was amazed how many 
people are listening off their frequency during the contest. They 
were calling CQ and I'd get no reply but still hear them answering 
another station. I'd widen the skirt and hear them work someone say 
300Hz +/- up or down from their transmit freq. I'd go split & match 
their Rx freq and bang, there was the Q. I'd leave split & go back to 
50 Hz and most people were Tx & Rx on the same freq but some people, 
quite a few really, definitely aren't listening to their transmit 
freq.

Gary
KA1J


> I cannot emphasize enough the importance of getting on frequency. 
> Make sure you can zero beat and get EXACTLY on frequency of the 
> station you are calling. It is amazing to me how many people cannot 
> seem to do that. I always have callers 200 and even 300 Hz high and 
> low, and then they wonder why I don't hear them. I don't hear them 
> because 200 to 300 Hz away is someone else's run frequency and I am 
> forced to use a 200 Hz filter with very steep skirts. That is how 
> crowded the band is during this contest. It does no good for me to 
> tune for off frequency callers. A distant caller who is S5 but 
> insists on calling under another running station who is S9+20 or 
> more is not likely to be heard. At least not by me!
> 
> Those are my comments. I'll go back to being silent now.
> 
> 73,
> Paul N1BUG
> 
> _______________________________________________
> UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
> 


_______________________________________________
UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK

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