[TenTec] Contesting Now On 17 Meters?

[Jim Brown]

On 11/4/2014 8:08 PM, Ron Notarius W3WN wrote:
> I do know of many ACCUSATIONS of contests, primarily from people who mistake
> DXpeditions for contests -- and/or people who don't like either, for reasons
> that have nothing to do with Ten-Tec.

Yes. Right now, there's a French DXpedition on Tromelin Island (VERY 
remote, near Madisgascar), a country that is VERY rare. Their location 
(roughly halfway around he world from California) makes 17M and 20M the 
best place to work them. I just worked them on 17M SSB and 30M CW, a new 
country for me.

One thing that makes it sound like a contest is that they are not at all 
good at controlling their pileups, allowing them to consume as much as 
20-30 kHz on CW and RTTY. 5-15 kHz is more typical on CW and RTTY. OTOH, 
their pileup was only 10 kHz wide on 17M SSB. They are 11,000 miles from 
me, so quite difficult to work.

73, Jim K9YC