Topband: The death of 160m DX contests?

[Jon Zaimes AA1K]

At 07:42 AM 12/10/05, Steve Ireland wrote:
>I figure the CQ WW CW these days is only good for a station as remotely 
>situated from the rest of the world as VK6 to 'search and pounce' as one 
>simply gets stamped on when CQing. 

Only S&P'ing greatly reduces the number of stations who can work you. Single ops and Multi-singles can't afford to sit on 160 and CQ very long, if at all. But they will listen briefly at peak periods (such as sunrise). So I would encourage remote DX stations such as VK/ZL to park somewhere and CQ -- they will find you, even under big local signals.

>The CQ 160 is pretty much the same game - the DX window in both the CQ WW 
>and CQ 160 are hopelessly full of big US and European stations and 
>pipsqueaks like me that are more than seven or eight thousand kilometres 
>away from NA/US just get trampled on when they CQ.
Once the sun is up in Europe the "DX Window" here on the East Coast gets pretty vacant but for a couple of Caribbean stations making intra-continental contacts (contrary to the rules). Maybe a KH6 or two, and an occasional stateside intruder. But usually plenty of room for a VK or ZL to have a clear spot to CQ, through our sunrise. By all means use split frequency though so you don't get trampled on by the pileup. Do the same in ARRL 160.


>With regard to the ARRL 160, from the point of both of the increasing 
>inability of stations outside the northern hemisphere to raise anyone in 
>the contest and the emails that say that this is really a US domestic 
>contest anyway, I won't waste any more time on operating in this one.
My goal in this contest is to work as many 5-pointers as possible. It's the DX that is key to a winning score, both in points and multipliers, and what makes it more interesting than just a domestic sweepstakes. I had more than 160 DX contacts this year -- so it's hardly just a domestic contest.

73/Jon AA1K