[CQ-Contest] N6TJ AXIOMS OF LIFE

Sat Jul 17 11:51:18 PDT 2010

I live in a propagation craphole....the opportunities to run are short and limited. I might get spotted 5 or 6 times in a whole DX contest and at least 2 or 3 of those spots are going to be wrong. Now that precious chance I get to run people is being destroyed by an endless line of dupes. I've tried, at 10 WPM, to expain that the packet spot was wrong and what my call is. IT DOESN'T MATTER. They AREN'T listening, they're just calling. Meanwhile there are callers under there that would be good QSO's, maybe even multipliers, that I can't hear them because of a bad packet spot. The only effective strategy is to move and start over. When you live here, that's not a great idea but it's all you can do. 

Unless somebody who "knows how to deal with it" can offer a better suggestion....

73 Steve K0SR
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Neiger [mailto:n6tj at sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Saturday, July 17, 2010 02:09 AM
To: 'K1TTT', CQ-Contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] N6TJ AXIOMS OF LIFE

I will comment about your last paragraph David, since obviously you've never ran a contest pile-up from the DX end, when often hundreds are all calling on the same frequency. But then your statement: "ONLY if you DON'T have the skill to know how to deal with it". I've been contesting 50 something years now, but there's never one where I don't learn something new. So please, go out somewhere rare, and show us all how to do it. It's not that I don't send my call frequently enough; some operators better than I, say I send it too often. But growing-up when KH6IJ was my idol, I signed on to Nose's manner of just sending my call at the end of the QSO, which when you're in a 4 per minute rhythm (cw of course), the skilled operators calling simply know it means 3 things: (1) I QSL your exchange and call; (2) I am XXX; and (3) QRZ. It's simply musical poetry. No, David, that is not the problem. It's those like you, and others, promoting packet, skimmers, nets, lists, etc. that have destroyed the ability of many (most?) to copy. I send ZD8Z. Your students post ZD9ZZ. Or 2D8Z. or ZD8MI. You opine that I should "just work the dupes that don't listen and get them out of the way". I do this 99% of the time. But often to the considerable detriment to my score. Like in the 1997 CQ WW CW from ZD8Z. I did single band 15, and became the first to ever do 5000+ QSO's on a band. It's still the world record. But, because of your wonderful technology operators, who busted my call in some of the above ways, I ended up with an outrageous 7% DUPE rate. Help me out with the math, please, David: 7% of 5000 = 350 QSO's lost by DUPES. Which is equivalent to wasting about 3 hours of the contest. As you don't appear to be a serious contester, I can understand why you don't care about wasting 3 hours. But for those of us with a goal to operate 48 straight, can you understand why we might not be too pleased that the generation you are fostering can't even copy code? And I cannot let your last words of learned advice pass without a note: You said " while adding a comment about what your real call is again" Ever try that, on cw, when you've got 500 stations constantly calling you, and every dit you send starts a new fever of calling? Ever try to inform a DUPE, on CW, that he is just that, when (1) he has no clue as to what your call is, and (2) obviously doesn't believe he's DUPE'd you. And further to that, most likely his top speed has maxed out somewhere around 15wpm. Again, please go out somewhere this fall, and show us all how to do it. I'm always willing to learn. It's late, and now every time I read the word DUPE, it's increasingly looking like I wrote DOPE. No insult intended, but I think I better quit here. Vy 73 Jim Neiger N6TJ -------------------------------------------------- From: "K1TTT" Sent: Friday, July 16, 2010 4:13 AM To: Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] N6TJ AXIOMS OF LIFE >> NO. 548 Packet spotting, skimmers and that ilk, corrupts and perverts >> any >> attempt to demonstrate operating skills, absolutely. > > Only if you consider packet spotting not a part of operating. By now we > are > all aware that packet spotting exists, it has existed for many years, and > it > will continue to be a part of contest operating for the foreseeable > future... so learn how to handle it and make it a part of your skill set. > >> They're happy, and I'm left with a DUPE. Wonderful. My only solution >> then >> is to QSY. Then watch the DUPES disappear (for awhile, at least) > > ONLY if you DON'T have the skill to know how to deal with it... ID more > often, call a couple CQ's with your call 2 or 3 times, and just work the > dupes that don't listen and get them out of the way... while adding a > comment about what your real call is again. > > David Robbins K1TTT > e-mail: mailto:k1ttt at arrl.net > web: http://www.k1ttt.net > AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://dxc.k1ttt.net > > > > _______________________________________________ > CQ-Contest mailing list > CQ-Contest at contesting.com > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest _______________________________________________ CQ-Contest mailing list CQ-Contest at contesting.com http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest 