Topband: Difficult rxing in contest environments in EU

[GEORGE WALLNER]

On Sun, 25 Jan 2009 13:22:42 +0100
  "Wolf Ostwald" <df2py at t-online.de> wrote:
> 
> Dear reflectees !
> 
> complaints of "not being heard
> in EU" ...mainly from the western part of the 
>US.

Wolf,

I mostly agree with you: I was in Europe a couple of years 
ago during the ARRL contest: I could not believe the 
crowding and the noise. More reason to explore Tree's idea 
of using more of the band: we really utilize only 50 kHz 
of a 200 kHz band. I understand the problems of operating 
split and other modes, etc., but we need to look at every 
possibility. TB is becoming more popular, and we are not 
likely to get additional spectrum, so things will get 
worse. Therefore it is time to stop complaining and start 
looking for solutions.

However, please also understand how hard it is to reach 
Europe from the west. I used to live in AZ and could do 40 
JA stations some mornings, but maybe one or two EU-s 
during the whole contest! Note, that back then the JA-s 
had to be worked split. That made it easy!

73,

George
AA7JV