We are often forced to run with fairly narrow bandwidths (I had to run last
night with 250 Hz) with stations sometimes being spaced out only 300 or 400
Hz. I had several occasions last night when someone was calling me 300 Hz
or more off frequency. . .so far off they were almost zero beat to the guy
above or below me. You don't have to be dead on zero beat to call, but you
need to be relatively close (not 400 Hz). 73. . . Dave, W0FLS
----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Kirk" <wd8dsb@gmail.com>
To: <Gary@ka1j.com>
Cc: "topband" <Topband@contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2016 1:10 PM
Subject: Re: Topband: CW160
Hi Gary,
I previously was amazed at some loud stations (like 20 or 30 dB over S9)
that could not hear my 100 watt station, and I thought it was due to the
fact that they were using directional RX antennas, but I finally stumbled
upon the issue that was most often the cause of my problem, and it was the
fact that they were using very narrow RX filters compared with my internal
500 Hz crystal filter and my method of tuning by ear was not adequate to
put me in their passband. I realized that I would have to keep adjusting
my TX frequency in very small increments until I wound up in their
passband
(I'm running a 35 year old rig with no quick method of zero beating).
Finally in Aug 2014 I built the Hi-Per Mite active audio filter that has a
-6 dB bandwidth of approximately 205 Hz, and this automatically fixed my
problem. The Hi-Per Mite active audio filter also has a very nice single
peak response whereas my internal 500 hertz crystal filter has a double
hump response which introduced a lot of variation in my tuning process.
Stations running very narrow filters may not be related at all to your
issue, but thought I should mention this phenomena for folks that it does
impact.
73,
Don (wd8dsb)
On Sat, Jan 30, 2016 at 12:22 PM, Gary Smith <Gary@ka1j.com> wrote:
Interesting conditions here last night. I
heard a whole lot of DX that simply could
not hear me. I'm running QRP and don't
expect to work everything I hear but one
thing for sure, the overall conditions
were really nice. It was fun to take a
break and listen to EU working other EU &
SA and hear both ends of the QSO on 160.
Not sure how good the conditions were for
everyone though, Herb & I worked but he
was one of the very few Caribbean stations
I was able to get a Q with. OTOH, I worked
several California stations as well as OR
& WA so the band was selectively open.
An interesting experience is to hear
stations who have one of the loudest
signals but are unable to hear me. You
have to figure their Rx must be difficult,
either that or they are running power
beyond their ability to hear. I
encountered that quite a bit and again,
running QRP, often my signal not going to
be heard but when someone has such high
signal levels here and can't hear me at
all, they might want to cut back on their
power or, get better a better Rx ability.
Maybe their Rx antennas were pointed in
another direction?
Absolutely not pointing a finger, I just
saw that happen so very often. I know if I
were running more power, I'd make a whole
lot more Qs. Conversely, if they heard
better, they would have made a lot more
Qs.
I'd really like to have the chance to work
a 160 at an excellent location with and
excellent Tx/Rx set of antennas. Wires in
not tall trees are the best I can do and I
have so much fun with them. However, it
would be nice to experience competition
with everything stacked in my favor. I'm
sure we all feel that way. Its been years
since I was at a super station and I'm
ready for that experience again; that was
back in 1986 and so long ago that they had
just started running CT by K1EA which was
first released the year before.
Another have at it tonight so maybe I'll
pick up some of those stations I couldn't
break last night?
73 & good luck,
Gary
KA1J
> Good luck to all!
>
> 73,
>
> Gary
> KA1J
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