[CQ-Contest] Rising IQ This Year

[Doug Renwick]

Here is my take on this.  In a huge pileup when the DX station comes
back with say DL4 ?.  How many symbols do the caller's hear, excluding
the tail enders?  For myself when the symbol '?', dit dit dah dah dit
dit, is sent and I happen to miss a dit here and a dah there, I can fill
in the missing parts and still come up with '?'.  However, when say DL4
is sent and there are some missing dits or dahs, who is to say whether
the DX station sent DL3 or DJ4 or G3, you get the picture.  So many
stations come back hoping that you heard them.  IMO the worst thing you
can do in this situation is send '?'.  Because to me '?' it is an open
invitation for anybody to call.  And they do.
One method to use is to do it these ways:
DL4 (no ?) and wait for a response.
or DL4, give the report and copy the strongest DL4.
or DL4, or repeat DL4, give the report, again send DL4 and copy the
strongest DL4
or turn down the rf gain so only the 59+40 stations reach your ears.
But don't send '?' unless you wish to have the hoards descend upon you.

I would be interested to hear from some super cw contest operators and
their techniques for handling huge pile-ups.

Doug

Life is not a spectator sport. 

-----Original Message-----
From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of ve4xt at mts.net
Sent: December 5, 2008 2:40 PM
To: David Wilburn; cq-contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Rising IQ This Year

One of the MOST frustrating things I noticed at 6Y1V were all the times
I'd send

"DL4?"

and a hundred guys, none of whom had DL4 in their calls, or even
anything close, and were nowhere 
close to Germany, would pile on.

So we'd send "DL4?" again. Now, about 98 of these hundred guys kept
calling.

So we'd send "DL4?" again. Now, about 70 of these hundred guys kept
calling.

It was only after the fourth time sending "DL4?" that enough guys would
shut the hell up so we could 
hear. I didn't mind if someone whose call was "close" dumped in (maybe
something like K3DLV).

The advantage to this tack is that for a short while, the pileup would
become somewhat more 
responsive to selective responses. And it did seem to help keep the
pileup in check, at least for a bit. 
Americans seemed to be the most polite in this regard. Europeans, less
so.

73, kelly
ve4xt