Topband: Don Miller and CW Pileup Management

[k1zm at aol.com]

Hi Don

Yes - we both remember the Don Miller style of working a CW pileup pretty much the same way.

In this case, I quickly realized that if I stuck with the CORE PILE I was going to have to really WORK HARD in order to pull out any calls - because the guys were totally out of control and calling wildly and non-stop.

I am not sure how I came to do what I did, except to say - that, like you, I knew the opening might not repeat itself (Krassy too had only one night at ST0R that was wide open) and he made the most of it  I learned from that and from the Miller remembrances.

So I just winged it and listened up and down for those on the fringes - in order to maximize the potential of the opening.

Glad it worked out because those good condx did not repeat themselves.

BTW - if you have not already heard, the National Geographic JUNE issue (which just came out) has a wonderful colorful spread on Socotra - really worth a look.  It is also available ON LINE on their website - much of what is portrayed there are things that I got to see on a tour of the island.

73 and hope you drank at least ONE BEER for me out at Dayton - I wanted to come but just could not make it back in time without having had to pay double for my airfare and I just wasn't willing to do that - HI.  This trip all in was expensive enough....

PS YES DON - We ***BOTH*** ARE GETTING OLD - and I am starting to FEEL IT - HI HI

JEFF  VY2ZM


K1ZM at aol.com



-----Original Message-----
From: K8MFO <K8MFO at aol.com>
To: k1zm <k1zm at aol.com>
Sent: Wed, May 23, 2012 7:42 pm
Subject: Re: Topband: 7O6T - 160m story - Part II


Jeff:

At Dayton I told some folks that you were doing a "Miller-type act", but they did not know what I was talking about!     Of course you report his activities just as they happened at VU2WNV.
 
I said at the time, and I still do, that the most impressive operating I ever heard was W9WNV/FO8M - Maria Theresa.    Forget that the island was not even above water, and that Miller may not even have been in the vicinity.     I was sitting in a college dorm at Michigan State, with no chance to work him, but I surely could hear him very well, and I listened to him for hours.     For something to do, I timed him, and he was knocking off over 250 per hour on CW  ...  I know, I did the counting!
 
Don would come back to maybe 8 people, send the one RST  ....  let's say he had blown one of those calls  --- he would correct it, and then have maybe another 8 "tail enders", and he would send them the  single RST!   Never heard anything like that since ....    Your modified version was very obvious to me, but maybe not to too many others.     Guess that means I'm OLD, hi.
 
73
 
Don K8MFO
 
 
 
In a message dated 5/22/2012 2:30:17 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, k1zm at aol.com writes:
What I did that night was something I learned long ago from Don Miller's operations in the 1960's
 
What Don Miller used to do was a little more extreme - Don would answer 10 stations at a time - send 599 - and then pick out the next 10 and do it again. As a kid in High SchooI, I used to listen in awe to him do this from VU2WNV - man that guy was really good at it too!)