[CQ-Contest] Hear and be heard

[Pete Smith]

At 06:10 PM 3/11/99 -0800, Dennis wrote:
>
>
>	I don't mean to be rude or flippant but can you list
>some of the other ways to control the pile-up
>other than not giving your call. I realize you can go by 
>call areas. What else? I am sure some of the newbies
>will also appreciate yor response.

Most of the answers to this haven't seemed to recognize the special
problems in a major contest situation -- it's tough to go split or to move
and find a new hole to CQ in, when the band is packed.

Aside from cooperation from callers, it seems to me the most important
thing an operator can do (besides signing every time) is to work on always
getting a call, complete or partial, out of the first wave of callers.
Nothing causes a pileup to degenerate into chaos faster than for callers to
see that the op who calls last is rewarded with a QSO.  If you absolutely
can't get anyone out of the pile, it's better to wait and call QRZ again
than to pick up someone who "tailends" the pileup.

One of the best exercises I have found is to listen to some of the pileup
recordings that are available at sites like contesting.com, and "copy
along" with great ops like CT1BOH.  You can really get a sense of what it
takes. 

73, Pete Smith N4ZR
n4zr at contesting.com 

Loud is.


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