[CQ-Contest] Whither Africa?

Fri Nov 1 11:08:02 EDT 2013

A good situation for "Up1", especially on CW.

73, Pete N4ZR
Check out the Reverse Beacon Network at
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blog at reversebeacon.blogspot.com.
For spots, please go to your favorite
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On 11/1/2013 9:49 AM, Larry wrote:
> It can be like trying to swim in a piranha infested pool - especially 
> after your exotic call hits the cluster.  You are the only menu item 
> and its dinner time. The pile can be overwhelming.
>
> 73, Larry  W6NWS
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Eric Rosenberg
> Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2013 2:44 PM
> To: cq-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Whither Africa?
>
> In what seems to be a previous life, the mid to late 1990's, I managed to
> get on the air -- HF and satellites -- from both the exotic and less rare
> locations: 9L, J2, YJ, HI, etc.
>
> I never found much of an active ham community in these locations, with 
> the
> possible exception of 9L, where Dave, K8MN, was working.
>
> What I found has that the resident hams (or expats, for that matter) were
> generally uncomfortable or downright afraid of running a pileup. In
> Djibouti, the local were rarely on SSB, as they felt uncomfortable using
> English, especially the rapid-fire pileup version. It appeared to be 
> was CW
> or nothing at ll.
>
> I didn't find anyone else on the satellites, my primary mode if
> operating..Too exotic, too expensive, etc. Satellite pileups were quite a
> handful, to say the least.
>
> And yes, when in the more exotic (read: in the newspapers, not the
> guidebooks), ham radio as my lifeline to home
>
> 73,
> Eric W3DQ
>
>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 1
>> Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 14:51:55 -0400
>> From: Tom Haavisto <kamham69 at gmail.com>
>> To: Charles Harpole <hs0zcw at gmail.com>
>> Cc: CQ-Contest Reflector <cq-contest at contesting.com>, Chip and Janet
>>         Margelli <margelli at socal.rr.com>
>> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Whither Africa?
>> Message-ID:
>>         <
>> CAKNnRU4HqCj21rAw0OHLEK3eCZM607Mw6K3Zd48xnd2D-MS6WQ at mail.gmail.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>>
>> Hi Charly
>>
>> I think you bring up a good point that is being overlooked.  I remember
>> hearing about a QSO from a friend who was chattting with a "rare" one 
>> some
>> years ago.  To help put things in perspective for the rest of us, 
>> image the
>> following:
>>
>> You get on the air.  There is an instant pileup.  Does not matter 
>> when, or
>> what band you get on, there is an instant pileup.  As soon as you are
>> spotted, you are instant prey for the masses.  The expectation is you 
>> will
>> start running without taking time for dinner, potty breaks, family 
>> time -
>> whatever.  Your whole purpose is simply to "be there".  If you don't 
>> get on
>> enough, something must be wrong.
>>
>> After you are done with that, you need to deal with a mountain of QSL 
>> cards
>> that magically find your way to you.  Order cards from the printer, then
>> start filling out return cards.  Some with money enclosed, some with 
>> IRCS,
>> some with return envelopes, some with unusable postage, etc. Then, you
>> need to find your way to the post office to send out the return cards.
>>
>> If you had a QSL manager, you had to photocopy your paper log, and 
>> mail it
>> to him.  He would then ship you boxes of cards.
>>
>> Granted - things have gotten better over the years,  LOTW has releived a
>> lot of the pressure for cards.  But - some still applies.  And - 
>> there is
>> more that is not mentioned here.
>>
>> Sometimes it is helpful to consider what life must be like for the 
>> person
>> on the other end before we get TOO excited about lack of activity from
>> known stations, or delays in getting QSL cards.  It can make the
>> frustration more bearable :-)
>>
>> Tom - VE3CX
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 29, 2013 at 3:03 PM, Charles Harpole <hs0zcw at gmail.com> 
>> wrote:
>>
>> > What I hear "foreign" operators say about contests.....  By 
>> "foreign" I
>> > just mean operators who are in fairly rare spots;  of course they are
>> > residents, not foreigners, where they live.
>> >
>> > What I hear is that ops in these places 1. got their licenses for
>> different
>> > purposes than contesting or being DX, 2. want to use ham radio for 
>> other
>> > non ham -type goals, and 3. do not enjoy trying to ride herd on a 
>> mass > of
>> > rude bad operators.  They do not enjoy responding to QSL requests, 
>> paper
>> or
>> > computer data bases.  They do enjoy an hour or two here and there 
>> around
>> > their other daily duties of relaxed chat and no-pressure on-the-air
>> > experiences.
>> >
>> > There are likely a majority of hams that are very similar except those
>> > other hams are in locations surrounded by many Type A contesters, and
>> thus
>> > their presence is not so much missed--although it would be great to 
>> have
>> > more casual ops to work.  The "rare" ops think of contests as just 
>> a > wall
>> > of noise, well beside the point of their goals.
>> >
>> > Believe me, it is very easy to get sick of scads of people calling 
>> while
>> > you are trying to work one.  Many just opt out.
>> > 73, Charly HS0ZCW
>> >
>>
>
>
>> > Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 18:16:15 -0400
>> > From: Richard F DiDonna NN3W <richnn3w at verizon.net>
>> > To: cq-contest at contesting.com
>> > Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Whither Africa?
>> > Message-ID: <5271852F.10606 at verizon.net>
>> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>> >
>> > This is more tangential to contesting, but remember as the DX station,
>> > you control the pileup.  If you want to run a pileup, you run a 
>> pileup.
>> > If you want to talk 15 minutes to a station, you do that. Its your
>> > choice.  I remember working ZD7VC a couple weeks back on 10; we
>> > exchanged the obligatory 5/9s and I said "thank you" and mentioned 
>> that
>> > this was our first QSO in about 20 years.  What followed was a good 10
>> > to 12 minute one-on-one one contact.  We had some attempted "break 
>> ins",
>> > but Bruce ignored them.
>> >
>> > Again, the DX station controls the pileup and if people are going 
>> to be
>> > so rude as to interrupt, they run the risk of disappearing from the
>> > log.  I know one DX station who in his pre CQWW warm-ups did just 
>> that.
>>
>> 73 Rich NN3W
>>
>>
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