Topband: Patience in ARRL 160 Contest

[David Raymond]

Fellow Lowbanders and Contesters. . .

I'm reminded of some not so new wisdom from operating the contest last night.  Big stations, don't forget to listen for the weak signals.  It may be well be DX calling you among the cacophony of stateside callers.  It pays periodically to stop and ask for DX.  That encourages our DX friends to participate in the contest. . .and you may well be rewarded.

You smaller stations, particularly QRP, most of the bigger stations will really work hard to pull you through for a successful QSO.  Please be patient and don't mind being repeatedly asked to give your call again.  Many topbanders have multiple antennas in the arsenal, one of which might be the one to pull out your call coming from a 5w transmitter going to your 40m dipole.  There were some incredibly weak stateside signals last night which took some time to get, but a little patience on both ends can bring mutual success.  

Contest conditions last night were surprisingly good.  I purposely avoided using the TX array and dropped the power to about 700w and ran on the 1/4 vertical (an omni antenna is nice during the contest anyway).  My thought was to be weak enough to avoid having EU call me and not being able to hear them through all the stateside callers.  Well, thankfully, conditions were good and EU called anyway.  It was a exciting to have F, G, LA, OK, ON, S51, and others call in (at which time I upped the power and went to the TX array).   I did, periodically, try to stop the run and call for DX and several times and, on several occasions, found an EU station waiting patiently to work me.  If one of us stateside is asking for DX, it would be great for NA callers to stand down for just a moment.  Most did but some persisted in calling anyway, sometimes blocking an apparent EU caller. 

And lastly, a word about the DX window.  The DX window is something that is mutually beneficial and give our DX friends a limited (darn limited with only a 5 KHz) window to be heard.  It's simple. . .ignoring this only discourages DX participation.   

I slept in this morning and missed what must have been some terrific conditions to JA.  Hope we have some more great conditions tonight and in the morning.

73 and see you on the air. . .Dave
W0FLS