[CQ-Contest] Skimmer had finally arrived

[Jimk8mr at aol.com]

Keith,
 
If there is no major pileup it is better to zero beat. Even if  there are 
several people calling, one is likely to be louder, faster, or not on  the 
exact frequency of other callers, and the CQing station will not have  
problems picking out you (or one of the others). If the CQing  station is coming 
back to other guys, or not picking out calls, nudging the  tuning knob a few 
Hz is a good technique.
 
With no other callers, is you are very far off frequency, it may not be  
clear if you will be heard by the guy you are calling, or the next guy up or  
down the band, or both. Lots of not-in-log calls and/or dupes happen because 
of  that.
 
When you find a huge pileup, so long as you are not vastly weaker than the  
other guys in the pileup, calling slightly off frequency is a great way to 
crack  the pile. Slightly may mean at the far edge of the calling hoards, 
which can be  several hundred Hz.
 
All this applies only to CW. On SSB you need to be on frequency to be  
understood. In SSB pileup cracking becomes an issue of timing.
 
 
73   -   Jim  K8MR
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 2/21/2012 8:25:04 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
kdtbikes at yahoo.com writes:

I play  around in contests and had a good time in the one this past 
weekend.  I  don't use skimmer, but with my FT-2000 it is easy to zerobeat 
using  the visual indicator.  I did hear some of the hordes that came down on  
some stations and usually passed them by as I did my S&P.  I am sure  I 
zerobeat others.   Is there a recommended offset that should be  used as a 
general rule in contests to avoid zerobeating and causing  issues?

Keith KB3ILS