Topband: QRQ vs. QRS

[Rolf Salme]

 --------   Lars, SM3BDZ wrote: ----------

>>With slow speed it can be a hard time to be able to copy all the 
>>letters in the call before diving into a QSB valley...
>>Any other thoughts?

Yes, definitely! - sorry Lars, hi! 

My experience from being on Top Band for some years as XV7SW is that it can be extremely hard to handle QRQ calls due to the high level of QRN most of the time in tropic or semitropic areas. QRN bangs are usually both loud and long enough to mask even quite long callsigns, and QRQ simply amplifies the problem. 

Thus, often when I sent a QRZ?, adding a "pse QRS", and found myself at the receiving end of another QRQ salvo, there was no chance on earth to get anything through. Another "QRZ? pse QRS", another swift rattle...and so on, and so on; I found this on-the-air Ping-Pong quite meaningless. 

If, on the other hand, the caller listened to my pleas for QRS, I sometimes had a fair chance to paste together bits and pieces to some plausible callsign between the crashes and  bangs. As I was normally handling pile-ups on higher bands at a reasonable QRQ pace, it seemed that callers on Top Band could simply not believe in my pleas, "QRS pse".

IMHO, ON4UN is commenting very wisely on this very problem in his "Low-Band DXing" (cf. p. 2-14, 4th Ed.) by concluding very Solomonically, "The DX station should determine the CW speed". He´s bang-on.

73,
Rolf
SM5MX, XV7SW etc.