Topband: Contest weekend

[Tom McAlee]

> Most interesting was HK1XX calling CQ for many minutes on
> saturday morning with S6 on my K2, but being unable to copy
> one of the many EUs who called. Even several big guns from
> OH failed to be heard, so there must have been hight noise levels
> in Columbia, I guess.

It seemed HK1XX was having that problem all-around, not just with stations
from EU.  He would CQ CQ CQ, very loud USA stations would come back, and he
would CQ CQ CQ again like he heard absolutely nothing.  It took me a while
to get through, as it did for many other USA stations.  I listened to his
pileup for a while (I was only operating casually in the contest so I had
time to do that).  It seemed those calling around 100 to 200Hz below his TX
frequency made it through quicker, but there were plenty of USA big guns
stuck on this one for a while.

It isn't just 160m either, and it isn't just because callers are on top of
each other.  I've listened to HK1XX for a while on 80 meters, when he's just
working DX (mostly USA) and people tend to spread themselves out a little
more when answering, and its the same deal there. CQ CQ CQ, pileup of USA
stations calling, on to more CQing because he hears nobody running less than
1500 watts into a 4 square.

During the contest I saw a few EU stations on the DX cluster expressing
their dissatisfaction (thats a nice way to put it!) with the situation.
But, it wasn't just EU.  Even on my peanut whistle antenna, he was a good
S9+10dB here in Virginia and people had to work for that QSO.

Tom, NI1N