Topband: Calling without hearing (was CQ 160 WW)

[Tree]

> Tom:  In my humble opinion turning off the spotting network would go a 
> very long way to solving the problem.  It amazes me how many guys dump 
> their calls when a spot shows up, even if they have not identified the 
> station they are calling.  I often hear the dx come back to them with no 
> response.......I'm sure you have heard the same thing as you listen far 
> more than I on top band. 
> 
> I know it is progress, but I would truly rather have it the old way when 
> we listened a lot and called our buddies on the telephone when a juicy 
> one showed up.  Let the flames begin.  73 bob de w9ge

You are not alone Bob.  In fact, that is why we have this rule in the Stew
Perry contest: "Remote or Cluster spotting shall not be used."  However,
I believe there are other factors.  Some of them are just due to more 
stations being on the air - which is a good thing - but it makes working
the weak ones tougher.  

Personally, I think the 5 kHz window is not up to the task any more.  There
are simply too many "DX" stations on during a contest to make it work.  With
perfect spacing and no key click problems, there is probably room for maybe
10 or 12 DX stations in the 5 kHz window.  Maybe if you are lucky, you can 
hear half of them.  I never understand why we don't extend it to 1840.  

It is easy to imagine a great system - like where people that are within
6 hours of their sunrise only operate from 1800-1820 - and everyone calls
them at +20 kHz of their frequency (1820-1840).  However, I doubt anything
that complicated would work in the real world.  The different frequency
allocations by countries makes this a non starter.

In the mean time - the single thing that can be done to help is to spread
out.  I know not all countries can work up the band, but a lot of them can.
I heard VE3EJ near the end of the CQ160 working Europe at a great rate 
around 1872 kHz.  Make an effort to tune up the band and REWARD those 
stations who have made the choice to avoid the more common frequencies.

It was interesting that packet didn't help me with the few European QSOs
I was able to make.  Part of the problem is that there were a ton of spots
and I couldn't hear most of them.  If a station did get spotted, the pileup
was too thick to deal with.  The stations I worked were found CQing during
their QSB peak and quickly worked before anyone else found them.  With te
exception of being beat out by W2VJN to I4EAT, there just weren't any other
stations calling the guys I worked. 

No easy answers.  Get your MPs unclicked and improve your receiving antennas.

73 Tree N6TR / K7RAT
tree at kkn.net