[CQ-Contest] Packet (was: self spotting)
Pete Smith
n4zr at contesting.com
Fri Apr 2 07:11:06 EST 2004
At 08:23 PM 4/1/04, Cqtestk4xs at aol.com wrote:
>But, let's take a look at the "broadcast CQ". What is really wrong with it?
>If the band is marginal, these stations act as beacons and can stir up
>interest in that band. Granted to push F1 is not a high skill operation,
>but to
>pull those ESP sigs out of the mud is.
>
>I have done the 6 CQs per minute on rather dead bands and have tried to pull
>the guys out of the mud who were ESP level...that requires as much skill as
>any S/P. Having had hours of 100 while S/Ping I speak from experience
Bill makes a good point. Recently, I opped at a big multi for the first
time, during the ARRL DX CW test. On Sunday, it appeared that 10 meters
was open, at least to southern Europe, but very few stations were there. I
made a point of spotting everything I worked S&P, in the hope that the
world-wide propagation of Internet spots would cause people to realize that
the band was open. To the extent that spots provide a profile of what's
happening on a given band, they can actually be a sort of "second order
beacon."
That said, I personally prefer to operate unassisted as a single op, and
use my second radio to check for band openings.
73, Pete N4ZR
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