I worked the big 2 M E-Skip opening from Maine a few years back. It
lasted quite awhile and my wife and I took turns. When it was all
over, I was amazed when I saw the logs. She had worked many stations
that I didn't and visa versa, leading me to realize just how variable
and always changing sporadic E was. I managed to work Texas, but the
station was loud enough that we could have worked on FM!
The opening was wild, and both my wife and I spent lots of time
listening without hearing any stations at all, only to have a new
state pop up 5 minutes later........this continued for several hours!
During the entire event, I never thought of switching to FM simplex
and trying a CQ. I will not make that mistake again! Virtually all
the stations worked on SSB were S9 and Q5, the few that weren't S9
were Q5, so I have to assume all of them would have been workable on FM.
I read a few accounts of the event later, and never heard of any
station that worked any other DX station on FM! I wonder how many
more grids and/or states I might have worked if I had just switched
to 2 meter FM simplex once in awhile and announced that I was in
Maine and 'listening'.
The sheer numbers of stations listening on FM probably mean many Q's
were missed because I never switched to FM and called. For every
station active on SSB, I bet there are 200 or more stations listening
on FM simplex! Like i said before, I will never make that mistake again.
Regards,
Art
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