[CQ-Contest]

[Pete Smith]

At 12:20 PM 4/5/04, Kenneth E. Harker wrote:
>The thing to do is to learn to recognize it when it happens.


Ken's right on target.  I frequently run on 10 and 15 meters with a DX 
station also running very close to the same frequency, but we don't bother 
each other because he and the stations he's working don't hear me, and vice 
versa.  On 80, on the other hand, this is almost never true.  In between 
varies.

The other thing I would mention is that the listening interval you are 
suggesting is maybe 10X too long.  In a normal contest (anything but SS, 
hi) a contest QSO only takes 5-10 seconds, beginning to end.  The time 
required to ascertain that a frequency "sounds clear" is commensurate.  If 
it is, dump in a quick QRL? or TEST N4ZR N4ZR TEST (on CW), and listen 
carefully for any reaction.  If you get none, send your normal CQ.  Until 
you are established on the frequency, be sensitive to people sending QRL or 
PSE QSY.  Once you have had 2-3 QSOs without such reactions, the frequency 
is as much yours as anyone else's.

I am also fairly intolerant of people who will QSY from outside my passband 
down to my frequency to inform me that the frequency is in use, and then 
QSY back to inaudibility.  If they're not bothering me, why should I have 
to move, to make up for their receiving problems?

73, Pete N4ZR
The World HF Contest Station Database
is back, at www.pvrc.org