[CQ-Contest] RX Heresy? - Key Clicks

[Dave - AB7E]

So I'll ask again ... how close is "ungentlemanly"?  How far away should I stay?  I'm serious ... pick a number and then tell us how many QSOs that would allow at the same time on any band.

For what it may be worth, I always send "QRL?" twice before calling CQ in a contest ... I even have it programmed as one of the N1MM CW macros.

And while I'm not trying to talk anyone into buying a K3, anyone can get a fully functional unit with a tight roofing filter brand new for $2,000 plus shipping, and they could probably get half of that back by selling their current rig.

>From my point of view, if someone is able to effectively operate within 50 HZ of me, either because they have a rig with a narrower bandpass or because they have a laser beam antenna or because propagation enables it, that's my problem and not theirs.  But if they do it purely to cause interference for me, they are simply a lid and a jerk.

73,
Dave   AB7E






------Original Mail------
From: "Jon Hamlet  W4ZW" <w4zw at comcast.net>
To: "'Dave - AB7E'" <xdavid at cis-broadband.com>,
    <w7why at verizon.net>,
    "'CQ-Contest at contesting. com'" <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Sun, 28 Feb 2010 10:20:59 -0500
Subject: RE: [CQ-Contest] RX Heresy? - Key Clicks

Just because you can doesn't mean that you should.  If you have higher
power, big stacks, tighter filters still doesn't mean you can plop down on a
strong station and drive him away, does it?

What happened to the gentleman's rules of competition?  Most participants in
a contest don't have filters and dynamic range rigs that let him skooch up
to 200 Hz of a running station and still expect to not interfere with
another, and then there are the callers.  Two stations within 200Hz of each
other, even with an S unit or two of each other are going to create
confusion and busted Q's.  That filter in our brain is the only thing left
in pileups like that, and those savants who can decipher order out that kind
of mayhem desire to win.  But for the vast majority of us with "normal"
transceivers who haven't upgraded to 200 Hz capable rigs, and spent that
last 90% of the $$$ needed for that last 2% edge, it is still and should be
a gentleman's contest.

Cozying up to within 200Hz of me when I'm running means I'm going to cozy
down to within 50Hz of you and therein lies the frequency fight we all hate.

My 2 cents.



Jon Hamlet, W4ZW

Casey Key Island, Florida
"A little piece of paradise in the Gulf of Mexico"



> Sorry, but I'm not going to feel bad about being able to slot into a
narrower window than
> someone else.  Where would you draw the line?  Lots of folks don't even
have a narrow
> filter, and lots of folks have rigs that de-sense from strong signals
10-15 KHz away so
> badly that they have to stay even further away from any of the big guns.
Besides, there
> are LOTS of disparities in a contest that affect where you can
successfully operate ... raw
> signal strength being one of them.  Nobody cut me any slack (nor would I
expect them to)
> during all the years I was limited to wire antennas and verticals.