Topband: Coupla things

[Gary Smith]

- Last night during the CQ160 test it was the quietest night in many 
weeks as regards local QRM from the electrical noise that has been 
plaguing me. The band seemed very open to EU and some SA stations 
with some EU coming in far stronger than most local stations. It was 
a fun night for me, I actually got to enjoy a contest without having 
a buzzsaw in the background of every station I heard. I'm still 
trying to pinpoint the exact source but it would be easier if it were 
constant. It is there at the this moment 2:30PM, I hope it drops off 
before evening comes. My point however is the band was open and there 
was a fair amount of DX onboard during the contest.

- It is a contest so the stronger and more savvy will wrangle 
contacts from those less able. I do find it disquieting to have 
someone obviously trying to copy my call and another contester come 
on top of my attempts and with their stronger signal, send their call 
over mine so the other person hearing them clearly replies to them 
instead. I'm running legal limit and the guy overpowering me is 20 
over so I know he heard me, he just pushed me aside like a shopper at 
Macy's Bargain Basement. Yes it's a contest but I don't find that 
kind of bullying to carry much honor.

- I was S&P and called one fellow out west who was fairly faint. When 
he replied immediately, he was much, much stronger. It could be that 
his amp warmed up and he just turned it on that second he replied but 
that seems unlikely, it was remarkable how quick the reply and 
difference in signal. After a bit I kept thinking how unusual that 
was as in 30 years I've not experienced that kind of change without 
an amp being turned on. Then I got to thinking perhaps he had a 4 
square or better and has his station set so when he logged my call, 
it accessed a hamcall database and then automatically switched to my 
direction without him manually doing a thing. I don't remember which 
call he has or I'd ask him. Is this something that people are doing? 
Seems ideal.

- Interesting how different the signals are. There was one guy who 
had what sounded like RF on his signal and made him stand out. I 
wonder if that was by accident or intentional.

- Same idea with the different range of key clicks. I have a K3 and 
inrad 250 Hz filters on both receivers and had the digital filter set 
as narrow as possible to 50 Hz and even with this rigs fine Rx, there 
were quite a few stations I could tell far away that they were there. 
Their clicks were so loud they obliterated DX well more than a KHz 
away. I had to wait till they listened and tried to pull out the DX 
call or reply to me. Most sitting on their frequency had delightfully 
clean loud signals and no clicks. It's too bad some people drive 
their amps so hard and make it hard for others to be around them. 
Maybe it's part of their plan.

Looking forward to tonights extravaganza!

Gary
KA1J