[CQ-Contest] Technique for calling DX in contests

[Jim Kehler]

Hi Robert,

    First, may I suggest that if you have a dictionary available, check
'sarcastic' and 'humor'. I would never base my opinion on a contact
with one station either, Robert. I base it on thousands of contacts 
with thousands of stations over many years.

    Second, in all seriousness, after having been on a little island in
the Pacific, and having been in contact with other hams on this 
and a few other little islands in the Pacific for 15 years, I can say 
without question that the absolute WORST operators anywhere in 
the world are in Europe. So much so, that during the last cycle peak 
if the bands were open to Europe I would avoid the radio except for
contest weekends.  Many other hams here did the same. I have a 
fourty five minute video tape of European pileups during the last 
cycle peak that I can offer in evidence of that statement.

   Other hams here that were not hams during the last cycle have 
already noticed this phenomenon again this cycle, even though we are 
nowhere near the peak.  WH0AAV says 'I can't work Europe. They
are crazy. I just go QRT'. KH2JU says 'The band is wide open to 
Europe. I turned the radio off, I'm going to bed'.

    You have to understand something, Robert. It's not that I don't
like Europeans. In a contest, I LOVE everybody that calls me. It's 
just that the above statement are facts. While the previous message 
about the SP9 station was written in hopes it would make a few 
people laugh, and perhaps make a few other people think, it was 
very typical of what I experienced in the IOTA contest last 
weekend:  

No operators from Japan or NA sent their call five or six times when
answering one of my CQ's.

Hundreds of stations from Europe did.

No operators from Japan or NA sent DE CALL CALL CALL before
giving me a signal report. And DE CALL after.

Many, many statons from Europe did. This is because of the
fact that they couldn't copy their own call when I sent a report
(never faster than 28wpm, usually 25 or 26) and they wanted
to make SURE I had their call right.  When someone resends
their call, it's usually an indication that the running station 
got it wrong. With Europe, its usually because there is so 
much QRM from other Europeans, they can't hear me.

No operators from Japan or NA called me CONTINUOUSLY for
thirty minutes while I was working other stations and never 
realized that because they were so weak, and because sixty 
two other stations as weak as them were doing the same thing,
it wasn't possible to work any of them. 

Many, many stations from Europe did.

Many times I changed frequencies simply because I got 
tired of listening to a little ball of fuzz just below the noise 
level that had an occasional letter or number pop out of it. 
Had it been an orderly ball of fuzz, I could have worked about 
three fourths of it. Unfortunatly, it was the unworkable type
of fuzz, known as continuos fuzz. 

No operators from Japan or NA called me while I was trying to
hear a signal report from the station I was working.

Many, many stations from Europe did. 

No operator from Japan or NA called me on my transmit freq
when I was working split and saying TU KH2D UP at the end
of each contact.

Many, many stations from Europe did. 

No operators from Japan or NA asked for QSL info in the middle
of a contest pileup.

Plenty from Europe did, and some just one QSO after I had given
QSL info to a station previously worked. If someone asks for QSL
info, I always give it to them, contest or not. I realize that people
don't call me because I'm a nice guy, they call because they need
a QSL card. But it sure ruins my chances for a good rate when I 
have to give it to every other station I work. My QSL info is well
published, many places. 

I have recently discoverd software with a 'rate meter' function. 
And I have learned a lot about what rates I am capable of. 
At the rate of 60 contacts per hour, I can eat a sandwhich, drink
a coke, carry on a converstation with someone else in the room,
and play with the dog. At the rate of 120 stations an hour, I can
still eat cookies and carry on a conversation with someone else
in the room. When the rate meter gets to 200 an hour, I need 
to start paying full attention to what I am doing.  Rates are, of
course, determined by the number of stations calling. I'd love 
to try and work 200 stations an hour for 24 hours, but I've never
had the pleasure of that many people callling me.

During the IOTA contest, I had some very long, large pileups 
from Europe. Stations were workable, but signals were very 
weak. So much so that several times I had to start working split, 
which I don't like to do in contests.  The highest rate I saw on 
the rate meter during the contest, while working Europe, was 
69 contacts an hour. And I wasn't eating cookies, I was working 
my butt off trying to copy reports thru 15 other stations calling, 
continuosly correcting busted calls because of QRM, giving 
out QSL info, and listening to stations send their calls three or
four times unneccesarily....

Anyway, Robert, thats the whole story. Had all the stations that
called me during the IOTA contest been in Japan or North America,
I'm sure my score would be twice what it is. Sad, but true.   

Don't take it personally. I will say the stations in G land are 
probably the best operators in Europe, and I'm not saying that 
because your call starts with a G. I'm saying that because G land,
like W1 land, is a black hole from here in the Pacific. When the 
band is open and I can hear G stations, I try and get other EU
stations to hold still while I work them. Which is another reason
why I am so keenly aware of the fact that the worst operators 
in the world are in Europe......

We need to, one day, have a CONTESTERS CONTEST.
Only the very best contest operators would be allowed to play.
In a situation where a very good contester was running a pileup
that consisted of only very good contesters calling, I'll bet the 
rate meter would be up around 400.....

I don't decide I'm going to win a contest at the beginning of the
contest. The people who call me during a contest make that 
decision for me. 

73, Jim KH2D


-----Original Message-----
From:	gi0kow [SMTP:gi0kow at gi0nwg.demon.co.uk]
Sent:	Monday, July 27, 1998 11:57 PM
To:	Jim Kehler
Cc:	'cq-contest at contesting.com'
Subject:	Re: [CQ-Contest] Technique for calling DX in contests

WOW Jim,
Thats a pretty sweeping condemnation of EU operators ! Ok you had a bad
experience with the station you used in your example, however judging
from your last paragraph you are painting all EU ops with the same
brush, surely thats not a logical or fair approach.
Believe me i know there are plenty of poor operators in EU, however it
seems to me that each continent has their share of sub-standard
operators.
One thing is sure when i work a so-called poor operator, for example
from North America i dont condemn every other ham from his continent
because of his actions. 
73
-- 
Robert Cummings GI0KOW



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