[SCCC] ARRL DX CW W6YA SOHP 20

[Timothy Coker]

Hah, as a Skimmer owner I’m actually sort of with you! Definitely not a good nor bad thing really.
Those zero beat pileups have been there for a while and definitely worse with the skimmers. What’s the real problem though? Operators obviously. I have learned the hard way (I get lazy by nature) to make sure my XIT is set to plus or minus 0.05.
The advantage is that while the majority of operators call on the even 10 hz spots (all skimmers going to show you on 14.030, 0.031 or 0.0299) the small adjustment of the XIT made me more nimble to be in and out of working the spots. 
Now when most skimmers correctly spotted the “fresh meat” on say 14.030 exactly... and the DX had a marginal signal, well that’s when I usually just move on to the next spot on the band map with a simple Ctrl-up/down and return for easier pickings once all the zero beating dissipates after a few minutes from the Skimmer’s 10 minute spotting cycles having occurred.
The tech is extremely useful in many ways... but it’s also causing a lot of operators to really get lazy as you’ve stated.
I feel for the non assisted guys though who are doing the traditional S&P... the question would often be, who is that in the mush!?!
As a final mention... I sure appreciated those Skimmers in Asia spotting my CQ’s for nice runs! It’s something that helped every runner in the world to get increased rate... and since I was assisted it was awesome to see when my run signals would make it into EU or AF, etc... I could quickly determine if a band was open or not. Even if I wasn’t spotted into EU, is run knowing most skimmers are like mine, on a marginal RX antenna, so sure enough the larger stations would find me.
It’s such a plus and minus.
Tim / N6WIN.


Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone


On Monday, February 19, 2018, 07:09, Dick Stepanian <dickw6tk at gmail.com> wrote:

Good work Jim.  Yes the pile-ups on DX stations was pretty crazy.  I did
operate (Assisted) but it is sure different than a few years back - the
Skimmers and RBN's have made things a lot more difficult with the
pile-ups.  I doubt we will ever see pure SO again!  Good to hear you some
mornings - short skip up the central coast area.  Take care

73,
Dick - W6TK

On Sun, Feb 18, 2018 at 9:41 PM, Jim McCook <w6ya at cox.net> wrote:

> Call: W6YA
> Operator(s): W6YA
> Station: W6YA
>
> Class: SOSB/20 HP
> QTH: CA
> Operating Time (hrs): 22.5
>
> Summary:
>  Band  QSOs  Mults
> -------------------
>  160:
>    80:
>    40:
>    20:  757    98
>    15:
>    10:
> -------------------
> Total:  757    98  Total Score = 222,558
>
> Club: Southern California Contest Club
>
> Comments:
>
> Despite the poor conditions, 20m was a fun band...that is, until the flare
> hit
> Sunday morning at about 1530z.  From that point it was more difficult
> going into
> Europe the rest of the morning.  My usual band for this contest is 15m,
> but this
> was the time for my first shot at 20m.  Again it was obvious that the
> clusters
> produced zero beat pileups that covered the DX when they ID'd.  I dream of
> DX
> contests where there are no spotting networks and no skimmers (sigh).
> Thanks to
> all who struggled to get my call.  73, Jim
>
>
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