[CQ-Contest] Alligators

[David Gilbert]

Well, I agree that can be frustrating (TI1T comes to mind from this 
weekend) but I think there can be various reasons for it.  High local 
noise can be a factor, of course, but so can the use of omnidirectional 
transmit antennas and directional receive antennas.

Also, I easily worked W6OAT last night but I had a lot of trouble 
hearing other stations in the northwest even though they clearly heard 
me.  I never heard you, and if you called me I apologize for not hearing 
you.  My antenna is a 60 foot high Inverted-L, but I have a mountain 
range that rises 2,000 feet above me less than 2 miles away.  I can't 
think of any reason why receive should be so much different than 
transmit, but that certainly seemed the case to the northwest.  It 
wasn't like that in any other direction.  The majority of every 
Washington or Oregon station I worked was in the mud, many requiring 
multiple repeats, and I have a semi-rural QTH with typically low noise.  
Two different Washington contest stations I worked told me I had a big 
signal up there, but they were barely Q5 here.

I do have a BOG, by the way, but it points northeast and was unusable 
anyway because of recent rain that cranked up the soil conductivity.

73,
Dave   AB7E


On 2/23/2020 1:23 AM, Jim Brown wrote:
> W6OAT and I are about 800 miles apart near Seattle and San Francisco 
> respectively, and we both observed the same thing during CQ160SSB -- 
> running stations that are very solid copy are DEAF. Contesters would 
> do well to spend a LOT more effort on RX. Those who have not done so 
> miss lots of QSOs.
>
> And if you can't hear, please don't pollute the band with a big signal 
> constantly CQing!
>
> 73, Jim K9YC