[CQ-Contest] K9YC ARRL DX QRP

[Kelly Taylor]

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for mentioning one-way prop. Those who are in more blessed locations might refuse to believe it till they experience it themselves. 

Many a time in the 80s (my 80-m loop was a killer), VE4VV (SK) and I would be told "Can't you hear all those Europeans calling?"

Um, no, we couldn't, and it was fairly well known I had the best ears in VE4, outside of those with bevvies. And even they could often be heard but not hear, either!

73, kelly, ve4xt 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Feb 22, 2016, at 10:27 AM, Stephen Bloom <sbloom at acsalaska.net> wrote:
> 
> Hi Jim:
> 
> Great points.  
> 
> From the other side of the equation here ...we often have a tough call.
> Even under perfect conditions .."one way propagation" is often a reality
> here ..especially when the bands are marginal.  With KL7RA gone, the rest of
> the Alaska ops have more ...ordinary stations.  There are a couple of guys
> ...KL2R and WL7F who have very low local noise levels ...but they are way
> North ..and completely at the mercy of aurora and absorption.  The rest of
> us live in South Central Alaska (Anchorage and burbs) and tend to have good
> antennas for the high bands ...wires for low bands.  We all get out better
> than we hear ..and it is especially drastic on the low bands.  It's always a
> tough call on whether to try and run on 40 or 80 ...because I am aware of
> how frustrating it is to hear a station fairly loudly ...running what seems
> to be an unmonitored CQ loop ...but ..once in a while ..things do line up
> well enough to make it work.
> 
> Speaking of 40M ...I was at KL2R for this one ..we did a M/S ..myself, Larry
> (N1TX/KL2R), and WL7F.  I was blown away by how well we did on 40M.  The
> station is in Two Rivers AK ...about 20M NE of Fairbanks ..and 70 or so
> miles South of the Arctic Circle.  Larry put up a pair of phased 40M
> verticals last year ..almost 500Qs on 40 for this one ..that is amazing for
> that far North.  2000+ Qs and 1.1 Million points overall.
> 
> 73
> Steve KL7SB
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: CQ-Contest [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jim
> Brown
> Sent: Sunday, February 21, 2016 10:09 PM
> To: cq-contest <cq-contest at contesting.com>
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] K9YC ARRL DX QRP
> 
> Many thanks to all the great operators who worked to pull my QRP signal out
> of the noise. I am amazed at your ears and your skill! Contesting from
> Northern California is hard enough, but reducing power by 25 dB is like
> having both hands tied behind your back!
> 
> I have come to working DX contests for two reasons. First, the challenge of
> QRP stresses operator skills and emphasizes good antennas and choices of
> band and operating times. With 1,500W, you can make QSOs when the band is
> marginal; with QRP, you've got to do it when the band is optimal.
> 
> QRP also exposes the weaknesses of stations on the other end who have put
> all their energy into transmitting, with little emphasis on receive. 
> There are dozens of stations who missed my QSO points because they couldn't
> hear! D4C got me on four bands, while E2X missed me on four. 
> Hearing means decent RX antennas and working at killing local noise. 
> I've spend weeks chasing down and killing noise in my QTH, and I still have
> new noises from my neighbors that I have to chase. It's a never ending
> battle -- my noise on 160M has gone to the roof, especially to the east and
> northeast.
> 
> Lots of stations, especially in Asia, were CQing endlessly with no
> responses. The early contesters in China got the message, and some of those
> early guys have established contest stations that can hear really well. This
> time around, E2X was loud, but deaf. There were many others.
> 
> If you can't hear them, you can't work them. I'm planning an NCJ article on
> this topic. Again, thanks to all who did the heavy lifting on their end to
> put me in their log.
> 
> 73, Jim K9YC
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