W*/125 Madness

Mon Sep 12 14:24:37 EDT 1994

Apropos the comments on the /125 activity, as a value judgement I figure
if a call shows up on the Packet*Cluster it must be a "good" thing - even
if you see Ops posting their own call.  Altho I have not joined into the
feeding frenzy, that is my option.  I have noted that most of the /125 Ops
try to complete their exchange, which is also a "good" practice. Perhaps
more important, my understanding is that this madness will continue thru 
the end of the month when the A index should drop and the CAL QSO Party
will begin. So for a "weak signal" little pistol all this amount to a lot
of "chumming" before the real action begins. This could be a VERY BIG YEAR
for CAL QSO Party, which is "very good".  Let the feeding frenzy continue.
73 de alan, N2ALE/6

>From tim.ellam at logical.cuc.ab.ca (Tim Ellam)  Mon Sep 12 13:29:00 1994
From: tim.ellam at logical.cuc.ab.ca (Tim Ellam) (Tim Ellam)
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 94 07:29:00 -0500
Subject: /125
Message-ID: <86223.1000.uupcb at logical.cuc.ab.ca>

While operating VE6SH/125 I was told to slow down(on SSB!)as I would
work more stations and this was not a contest so "dont be bringing your
fancy voice keyers and the like into it"

Go figure

Tim VE6SH

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>From oo7 at astro.as.utexas.edu (Derek Wills)  Mon Sep 12 22:02:29 1994
From: oo7 at astro.as.utexas.edu (Derek Wills) (Derek Wills)
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 94 16:02:29 CDT
Subject: W*/125 Madness
Message-ID: <9409122102.AA29676 at astro.as.utexas.edu>

	Apropos the comments on the /125 activity, as a value judgement 
        I figure if a call shows up on the Packet*Cluster it must be a 
        "good" thing - even if you see Ops posting their own call  [N2ALE/6].

Well, maybe.  I do "check in" to clusters because 1 spot in 25 is of
interest and I can ignore the other 24.  I do get tired of the spots
like "14250 DL1XX Fritz in Germany", though.

It was sort of amusing to find non-/125 stations sitting in the clear
calling "CQ /125 stations".  I never heard any of them get an answer,
but I suppose a /125 person who doesn't like pile-ups might be happy
to give the person a point that way.

I dunno, I have never been a believer in "restricted CQs", the last
time I emitted one was some years ago when 20m was wide open to VK
and I just needed a VK1 for the neat "All VK Call Areas" certif., so
on a whim I called "CQ VK1" and nearly fell out of my chair when one
answered.   But I'm not sure what these people who call "CQ, Beaming
the Pacific" are trying to achieve.  Does that mean they don't want
a 3V8 or a 9N1 to call them?

OK, I added up my Sprint mults - 213x39 = whatever.  Trey kindly sent
me his mult list, he had 5 I didn't and I had one (IA) he didn't, so
perhaps there just weren't that many of them out there.   I had one
dupe - someone I'm sure I worked earlier called me, I told him "B4",
he insisted "No" so I worked him 'again'.  Well, AA5B was in this one
some of the time, we only differ by one dash, who knows.

'scuse the meandering, I'll go away now -

Derek AA5BT, G3NMX
oo7 at astro.as.utexas.edu

>From David O. Hachadorian" <0006471356 at mcimail.com  Mon Sep 12 20:40:00 1994
From: David O. Hachadorian" <0006471356 at mcimail.com (David O. Hachadorian)
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 94 14:40 EST
Subject: /125 Party - K6LL
Message-ID: <50940912194005/0006471356PK3EM at mcimail.com>

A couple of weeks ago, somebody on the local repeater mentioned the upcoming
Hiram Percy Maxim Birthday Bash. I had forgotten all about it, but hmmm, it
might be interesting to get on and pass out a few /125 ORS QSO's. Without
giving it much thought or preparation, I set up CT in the dxpedition mode,
using the notepad function to record ARRL appointments. Got on 20 cw on
Saturday afternoon; 85 Q's in 40 minutes. Switched to 20 ssb, 230 Q's in the
next hour. These rates kept up for the whole first weekend. It was
tremendous operator training for me, and I really improved as time went on.
The rates would have been much higher, but for some reason almost everyone
wanted to exchange name, QTH, and (on ssb) various pleasantries such as
"What does the /125 mean?" 

On cw, I tried to keep the pileups manageable by cranking up the speed to
where most people couldn't copy (45 at times), and by ID'ing on every other
qso. Even at that, the pileups were so deep that only fragments of callsigns
were copiable. Just hit the INSERT button with whatever fragment is in the
CT callsign field and let 'er rip!

On ssb, it was even worse. I hate to say it, but the guys who stood out in
the pileups were the ones who identified with a two letter fragment, like
DELTA ZULU. I would just respond "Delta Zulu 59 ORS", talking as fast as
possible without sounding too much like an idiot. About 90% of the time,
they would respond with their full callsign and exchange. 10% of the time
they would respond with only the exchange and would have to be asked for
their full callsign. It seemed to work pretty well.

Final Results:

BAND  MODE      QSO           

   80 CW         53           
   80 SSB         0   

   40 CW        510 
   40 SSB       102 

   20 CW        684 
   20 SSB      3127

   17 CW         44
   17 SSB       216

   15 CW         32
   15 SSB       350

   10 CW          0
   10 SSB         7
 ------------------
 Total CW      1323
 Total SSB     3802

 Total         5125 (470 of these were ARRL /125 stations)

Using the CT notepad to record the arrl appointments was a pain in the rear,
and for some reason the notes got appended to the previous qso in the log. I
don't know if CT did this, or if I was doing something wrong, but it
required a fair amount of post contest manipulation to get this all
straight. I'm sure there was a better way to handle this "contest," but I
didn't want to change procedure in mid-stream.

The mailbox is now overflowing with qsl cards, and the number is rising
every day. It is obvious from the cards and from on the air (ssb in
particular), that MANY of these qso's are from relatively new hams. Now, if
we can figure out how to get them involved in REAL contests, it will really
get interesting! Why did this party generate all of this activity? Here are
my thoughts:

1. There was a very attractive, multicolor, two page article in QST (Aug, pp
46-47) describing the activity. The article was not written in the usual
contest fine print legalese.

2. There was the promise of a "nice certificate" for making the very
achievable goal of 25 qso's. Endorsement stickers could be had for making
additional increments of qso's. It's obvious from the cards and on the air
that people just did not quit when they got to 25. They found it enjoyable
and kept on going for more.

3. The exchange was simple. RS(T)/appointment for the 125 stations, and
RS(T) for everyone else. In fact, the exchange was TOO simple for most
people, and they added QTH and Name, making it sound more like a "normal"
QSO. Most of them demanded to know MY name and QTH, so I gave it now and
then. 

Maybe contest sponsors can use some of these basic marketing ideas to
improve participation. This birthday bash was definitely a smashing success!

Dave, K6LL
k6ll at mcimail.com