Topband: Dirty Harry and the DX window

[Tom Rauch]

> I'm fairly new to 160m but I've been DXing for over 30
years.  It seems
> that everyone monitors the DX window during a contest and
pileups build
> quickly and heavily.  My observations are that stations in
the 160m
> pileups send their calls more slowly and often send them
several times
> due to the typically lower S/N ratios.

I think the real reason pileups are such a mess is everyone
wants to be the very last station calling and people call
just because they hear someone else calling (even if the DX
station is still transmitting).

Last night HP3XUG was trying to tell me something and one
single station started calling him while he was right in the
middle of his transmission. That one station caused about
half-dozen others to transmit. It gets even worse in a
contest.

Nothing to worry about. That's just life in the pileups,
although it would be nice if everyone followed a "give call
twice" rule. The JA's seem to be very well behaved. I'd vote
them #1 in pile up manners.

73 Tom