[CQ-Contest] A Newcomers Question

[Paul J. Piercey]

Hi Dave,

As a relative new-comer to the contesting world, I've had the same
experience as you. Big signals booming in and no reply. There are many
factors that can contribute to this phenomenon. Here are a few of the things
that I was told when I asked the same question.

1.	The station you hear has a lot higher local noise and QRM than you
do.
2.	He's running "legal limit" INTO his amplifier.
3.	Propagation is one-way or selective.
4.	You are not worth any points to him and he doesn't want to take the
time to tell you.
5.	He has his station on autopilot to hold the frequency while he gets
a snack, goes to the john, etc.
6.	The tone of your audio may not cut through as well as others.
7.	Your antenna is not as efficient as you think. SWR is not the main
indicator.
8.	He might be working split and relying on the cluster to tell
everyone. (sometimes you're lucky to get a callsign every half-hour)

I'm sure others can give you a lot more ideas. You don't say how much power
you are running or what your set up is. I currently have the best antennas I
have ever had and am running HP most of the time and I still have this
happen. During this past CQWW, I had s9 or better Europeans pounding in
before my sunrise that just couldn't hear me at all. I wouldn't even get a
"QRZ?". Also, I have a lot of noise on many bands (low bands especially) and
I know that I miss an awful lot of stations calling me because of it. Just
the nature of the beast I guess :)


73 -- Paul VO1HE  


> -----Original Message-----
> From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com 
> [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Dave Sloan
> Sent: October 30, 2007 18:16
> To: cq-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] A Newcomers Question
> 
> Why is it during contests that I can hear a station at say 
> 20db over S9 and that they never hear me. I had thought that 
> it was my poor antenna installation. But, yesterday I was 
> talking with a friend that has a tower and beam and he says 
> they same thing happens to him. If this were just a one time 
> occurrence I would chalk it up to the other station just not 
> having any ears. But this happens numerous times during every 
> contest that I have worked. I can hear the other station 
> working all sorts of other stations. I have tuned in of the 
> frequency of the station they are working and then called 
> them on that frequency. I've called maybe 25 or 30 times over 
> a 5 to 10 minute timeframe. I have heard the same station at 
> different times during the contest and on different bands and 
> yet every time I try to work them they don't hear me. Can 
> someone please explain what I am doing wrong.
> 
> TNX & 73,
> Dave N0EOP
> 
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