[CQ-Contest] Why Is it...

[Steve Harrison]

At 11:22 AM 7/10/2007 -0400, Art Boyars wrote:
>   K0XP wonders why:     that over a whole weekend of a  contest, we lil
>whipperschnappers can't seem to achieve a rate over 40 Qs/hour;  yet,
>during an ordinary weeknight (during a sunspot min yet), calling CQ on 80 
>or 40 will yield unlimited pileups of Europeans??????????????"
>------------------   Of the thoughts that come quickly to mind, here are 
>two:     On an ordinary weeknight you are not  competing with the loud
>stations, both W/VE and those in EU.      >).   73, Art K3KU

I begin such a nite with an ordinary CQ resulting in an ordinary QSO
including exchanging QTH/name; then as the pileup grows over the following
10-15 minutes, cut out the extraneous chatter until we're just doing
ordinary contest-like exchange of RST. About every 3 or 4 Qs or so, when it
begins dying down a bit (or I start feeling guilty about being a W0 in
W1-land  ;o), I toss in QTH/name again. When cndx are good (i.e.: the band
isn't fading due to the time being well after their sunrise), a longer QSO
will often result in an additional 3 or 4 guys calling, right down into the
QRP tier. There's nothing like a pileup of QRPers calling you on a fading
band to really stretch your ear muscles  ==========8-O

I noticed the same was happening with N3IQ, who's in Maryland and was
saying so, almost every QSO. Yet, he'd still have 3 or 4 Europeans call in
a small pileup after each QSO, some of them even tailending before he was
done. I think QRN kept him from hearing everyone who was calling him, though.

Yes; the louder you are, the more attention you get, of course (listen to
what happens when W3RJ does this on a weekday night on 40 or 20); but also,
the callers seem to respond better to a "snappy" operator rather than an
obvious chatterer.

I suspect part of the reason for these weeknight pileups is many just don't
want to call those who are obviously in contests on the weekend; they don't
want to "get involved" in a real contest. And then, too, perhaps some of
those who make up the weeknight pileups just aren't on the air on the
weekend nights (except maybe major contests). I had a half dozen folks
(both W and Euro) call me during the YV test saying they weren't in the
contest and they only gave RST, no Q number. I didn't log those. Then
later, two of those called again and gave QSO numbers  8-))))))  What was
obviously happening with them was when they first called you, they just
didn't know what contest, nor what exchange to give, so begged out. But as
they heard other Europeans (and Ws) give exchanges, they heard how easy it
was, relented and began giving a few of us a "real" contest Q.

Also heard several guys get into pileups on DXpeditions or other rare
stations that weren't in a contest and thus not giving out serial numbers,
then those guys gave their QSO number but the DX still didn't give a Q
number. I'd bet money those guys logged those DX Qs as #001  ;o\  Back in
the '60s/'70s, many of us in lesser-known contests did that as a matter of
fact, such as in the California QSO Party during its first several years.
Since DXpeditions weren't about to submit logs for a stateside QSO Party,
there was, realistically-speaking, zero chance that the contest sponsors
could compare your log with a DXpedition and see that the DXpedition hadn't
given you a serial number for the contest  ;o)))))  Today, especially with
computer-log checking and LoTW, that's not true, though  ;o|

It's interesting to do these weeknight pileups, and can be a lot of fun if
you get started early enough before the band(s) are fading away as the sun
rises on their side. It's especially interesting when you give "real" RST
reports and receive the same from the DX; gives you a better feel for how
you're really doing over there before the weekend's contest comes up
8-))))))  I'm undecided whether having "real" DX such as OJ0 or the like,
already on the band with their own pileups, helps or hurts, because having
DX on the band seems to naturally result in more people tuning around and
calling you, while some of those in the DX pileup are "real" DXers and
don't want to work "just another W"  ;o|

Especially in the summer on 80/40, it doesn't work nearly as well when a
European tries to do a QSO run on W's because there's far fewer Ws to work,
and it's well after European sunrise by the time the sun's over the yardarm
west of the Mississippi  ;o(

Way back in the early '70s, several friends of mine and I would sometimes
set up our own little weeknight "contests" where we'd each spread out and
CQ our hearts out for a half hour or so, then compare "scores" afterward
;o)))))) (sorta like a DX Sprint).

Just another way to keep a bored contester outta trouble in between frays....

All this is on CW, not voice; on voice, I understand the pileups are three
times as large and two times as deep  ;o)

Steve, K0XP