[CQ-Contest] HA: The Calling Disease... (split operation)

[Jack/W6NF]

On 11/29/2011 6:18 AM, Vladimir Sidarau wrote:
>>>> W6NF says:
>>>> One station just simply sent "up" with no direction as to how far. I
> figured it out by finding the din of signals, almost a kHz wide.
>
> There used to be a rule unfortunately almost forgotten by now, UP without a
> clear designation means by default +1 on CW, +2 on RTTY and +3 on SSB.
>
>>>> W6SX has committed to not working any station that runs split in a
> contest. If enough of us do that it will, hopefully, kill the practice.
>
> Why, why and why?
> Last Sunday ZK2V started a run on 10 m. It was quite OK for some time but as
> the pile up was building and more and more unruly callers came along, the
> run had stopped completely. The reason for that is clear, when there are
> dozens of 599+20 non-stop callers on top of the much weaker ZK2 signal,
> working the ZK2 turned to be impossible because ZK2V simply was not heard
> anymore. ZK2V was simply forced to go for split, and when he did that, the
> run relieved back again.
> Actually ZK2V had 2 more options, to get emotional and turn off completely
> or to look for a new freq and to start running until the pile-up is unruly
> again, and so on time by time. But he behaved responsibly and did not leave
> dozens of those looking for a contact with ZK2 and calling him for quite
> some time. The split helped both ZK2V and numerous callers (including yours
> truly...).
>
> 73,
> Vladimir VE3IAE
>
> ---
>
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The +1, +2, +3 rule is news to me. I've been around for a bit (although 
never a DX'er of any consequence) and this is the first I have ever 
heard of that.

Particularly under very crowded band conditions, I object to a station 
effectively occupying two frequencies. If enough DX stations adopt this 
practice it could be a real nightmare. Although I heard one east coast 
station decide to call CQ between a DX station and the run frequency. I 
don't know if that worked but the frequency *was* clear!

As has been noted here already, in the CW SS a NT station *did* adopt a 
"QSY when the hoard becomes unruly" policy. It worked very well. Of 
course that would be disadvantageous for assisted operations who would 
be forced to tune around for the new frequency or wait until it was spotted.

-- 
Jack, W6NF
Silver Springs, NV
DM09ji