[CQ-Contest] 160m DX window dead?

[Richard L. King]

At 11:58 8/16/01 +0100, W4ZV wrote:



>         Well my guess was wrong but I believe my point still holds!  160m 
> DX is
>where you find it and most was NOT in the 1830-1835 window.
>

Bill has already forgotten what it is like to work the ARRL 160M Contest 
and other 160M contests from west of the Mississippi.

I have done both, having been somewhat successful operating the ARRL 160M 
Contest for many years both from Texas, then on to New York for 15 years, 
and then back to Texas again. So I think my experience from both parts of 
the USA counts for something.

When I was doing the 160M contests from New York I would have voted to get 
rid of the DX window. My argument was that it isn't needed because you can 
work the DX on any frequency. This is very true but ONLY if you live on the 
East Coast. The East Coast operating strategy for the contest is to find a 
good frequency to CQ on, have high antennas, be loud, clear out your 
frequency, and the DX will come to you. It was easy.

The DX window was a bother because it took a chunk of premier 160M 
frequencies away from me where I could do my endless CQing to attract lots 
of European QSOs. It was not unusual to have 150-200 European QSOs in a 
single contest with 90% of them answering my CQs. Having more available 
frequencies for me to CQ on would have made it even better. Especially if I 
could CQ in the 1830 to 1835 range where the DX window is.

But now, back in the Southwest (Texas), the 160M Contests aren't so easy 
any more. I have to be satisfied with working more stateside stations in 
the 160M Contests and many, many fewer European stations. I now find that 
the DX Window has a direct relationship to my score.

During the contest I can search the DX Window and find the louder European 
stations and call and work them. This gives me some critical multipliers 
that I wouldn't get otherwise. Most of these stations would never call me 
during the contest and I would not hear them if they were CQing in the 
midst of a line of East Coast stations punching their F1 key.

So in summary I say if you remove the DX window you make the 160M contests 
really better for the East Coast stations. But you make the 160M contests 
worst for the rest of the country. If your intent is to skew an advantage 
more to the East Coast, this will certainly do it.

73, Richard - K5NA

k5na at texas.net


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