[CQ-Contest] overwhelmed by packet spot dumper inners
Tom Frenaye
frenaye at pcnet.com
Mon Nov 27 19:57:57 EST 2000
At 07:33 AM 11/27/2000 -0500, K4-operator-juiced wrote:
>Many packet guys are clearly pointing and shouting the moment something is
>spotted rather than listening first....this is apparent by their first
>appearance in a pileup transmitting on top of the juicy mult....
One of the 15m spots was for FH5CB on 21223. Looked like a nice new mult
so I jumped on it (went to the freq and listened). Realized that it was
not likely to be a CW signal above 21200 so didn't transmit. Did hear a
few people dump in their callsigns. One enterprising VE7 even called CQ
there when no one came back to the other's calls - and he worked a few
stations before heading back to the 2100x battleground.
-- Tom
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e-mail: frenaye at pcnet.com YCCC --> http://www.yccc.org/
Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box 386, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444
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>From Peter Grillo, Sr." <ah3c at frii.com Tue Nov 28 01:30:13 2000
From: Peter Grillo, Sr." <ah3c at frii.com (Peter Grillo, Sr.)
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 18:30:13 -0700
Subject: [CQ-Contest] overwhelmed by packet spot dumper inners
Message-ID: <003301c058da$c314a9c0$0100a8c0 at dellxpsr350>
Hi Jim -
For the first time in my contesting career, I helped out in generating
packet information this weekend. My rule was: Work the station first, then
issue the frequency, only if that station is struggling to make Q's. I made
one big mistake: I spotted 5A1A on the low end of 20 and he was immediately
dumped on after my spot. This taught me the lesson on being careful about
spotting. Let the station operators do their normal search and pounce.
Use spotting to assist the DX station, not hinder him. We are supposed to
be radio operators, not just computer operators. I like to think of the
computer as a tool, to enhance my operating skill, not the means for my
operating skill.
Dick Norton, don't shoot me. Read this first, then shoot me!!!
Pete,
AH3c
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>From Peter Grillo, Sr." <ah3c at frii.com Tue Nov 28 01:11:47 2000
From: Peter Grillo, Sr." <ah3c at frii.com (Peter Grillo, Sr.)
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 18:11:47 -0700
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Pileup management
Message-ID: <002201c058d8$4bb1d620$0100a8c0 at dellxpsr350>
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Dear Martin,
I totally sympathize with your predicament. Packet has definitely =
become a situation that DX stations must learn how to deal with. This =
is what I recommend:
First, consider a pileup as the concentration of information overload. =
The goal is to spread this information into reasonable bits by breaking =
it down to accurately select a only one caller at at time. =
Unfortunately, the pileup is behavior oriented. Managing it with logic =
doesn't always work. It's mood is tied to human nature: Eager beavers. =
Panic callers don't have the patience to use all the right procedures.
It is the control station (DX operator in this instance) who must take =
charge.
a.. On phone, you can attempt to scold behavior and hope for =
understanding. You will fail because your callers will become even more =
unruly trying to identify the bad guys and making additional QRM in the =
process.
b.. On CW, the yelling and screaming is only heard within the =
frustrated caller's shack. He will try to out-gun his counterpart with =
his power at any cost.
Today's transceiver's typically have dual VFO capability. With this =
feature, I recommend the following because it has worked for me every =
time, and that is to use two transmitting as well as receiving =
frequencies. Here's how it works:
1.. Find a decent clear frequency to CQ with and begin the process. =
As the pileup builds, work the edges of the pileup only. Callers will =
gradually stop calling on your frequency because they will find the =
previous successful guy's frequency and zero beat him because that is =
where you are listening.
2.. As the pileup builds your QSO rate will tend slow because of the =
listening problems on both sides of the path. If you have the =
capability, increase your sending speed to weed out the slow callers. =
The disadvantage to this is that you might miss a juicy multiplier that =
simply cannot hang around.=20
3.. Finally, just stop and let them continue to call. While they =
are doing this, look for another clear frequency and begin another =
pileup. By the time the callers on the old frequency die down to a =
manageable count, your new frequency will likely have built up another =
saturation level. Then, with your trusty VFO switching capability, go =
back to your original pileup and start picking the straglers off. =
Toggle back and forth from one pileup to the other and you will be =
amazed at how quickly your rate will return to normal.
If you do not have a dual VFO transmitting capability, then you can jot =
down the original pileup frequency and manually set the transmitter back =
and forth from one pileup to the other. It may require a bit more =
playing with the knobs, but in the end it will be more efficient.
The Pacific is particularly prone to difficult pileup management issues =
because of such long distances between population centers. When I was =
on Johnston Island 10 years ago during a fantastic solar maximum, =
conditions to Europe were exceptional. However, the signals were =
typically in the 3 to 5 S-unit range. A pileup would simply sound like =
a lot of noise and undistinguishable if narrowed to just 1 or 2 KHz. To =
further exascerbate the problem, all Pacific stations are considered to =
be juicy multipliers, especially during the tail end of a contest.
I learned that split operation by a DX station rarely works during a =
contest, but is the preferred approach for DX operation outside of a =
contest.
Incidently, I played this weekend for the first time in a DX contest =
since the "Great Colorado Shootout" of 1997 CQWWCW. I was on 20M =
sharing with W1XE operating from Multi-multi station, K0RF. Chuck has a =
great station, great QTH, and outstanding hospitality! With Chuck's =
permission, our team is hoping to post some PIX of this operation for =
those interested. It was a fun weekend for me! I hope you gained some =
fun from this also.
73,
Pete
W0RTT, ex-AH3C, etc.
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