Topband: Calling without hearing (was CQ 160 WW)

[Tom Rauch]

> This years top band contest was a mixed experience. On one
hand, a WW contest is always a thrill, but on the other hand
this one was very frustrating. Why? Too many stations on too
little room. This leads to a situation where you have,
within minutes after the contest started, a string of pearls
of strong (overpowering) stations continuously calling CQ
TEST, often not hearing stations coming back to them. My
frustration was that I heard weaker US stations calling
under the strong europeans. If I tried to call one of them I
immediately heard the europoean cry "QSY">>

It is the same on this end. We could hear Europeans every
few hundred hertz as i tuned the band, but no way could we
work them all. When we would be on calling CQ there would be
Europeans under us calling CQ. That prevents both us and
them from making QSOs.

If we switched to maximum gain directional patterns on
Europe, Carribean or western US stations would move on top
of us. We were largely QRM limited in the contest.

That's just the way contests are. It would be interesting to
hear solutions, but I think we have to accept it.

The bigger problem is this:

> There is probably not much to do about this situation but
a) don´t call if you don´t hear the dx and b) make ONE call
(not two or three).
> The discussion about DX windows earlier on this forum was
interesting. I think that in the future with contests on one
band, we must >develope some system with dx-windows but how?
Who knows!

I think the biggest single mistake made on 160 was doing
away with a DX Window in the USA bandplan. It was OK for me
and big east coast stations, but very unfair for small
stations. We now have another possible step towards
increasing problems on other bands.

http://www.w8ji.com/rm-11305.htm

http://www.w8ji.com/mixing_wide_and_narrow_modes.htm

While it has ALWAYS been a problem, there seem to be more
stations calling (often with long calls) when they very
obviously cannot hear the DX station at all. Why do people
do that? Is it because with enough power they can
occasionally make a "QSO" without really hearing the other
guy?? This is one step removed from just changing the
writing on a QSL card. Who can feel good about a QSO like
that?

What's the best way to reduce that problem?

73 Tom