Topband: Coupla things

[Eddy Swynar]

Hi Gary,

> 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 honour.

The old saying of "...All's fair in love & war" applies here, I'm afraid! "bullying" just goes with the turf, & I will admit that non-practitioners DO have quite a "learning curve" to go through before becoming used / immune to it...

> - 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.

You can experience sorta the same thing, Gary, on receive, if you employ different directional antennas for your "ears": the difference(s) can really be quite astounding by times!

> - 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.

Funny you should mention that---at one point this morning I was answered by a station from New York who would have been an ideal candidate for participation in the AWA's annual "1929 QSO Party"! He was very broad & raspy-sounding, and was obviously sending with a straight key. Anyway, he completely obliterated the other two stations who were calling me, so naturally I responded to him first. And that was good---except when he moved off-frequency to answer others, & was so wide that all I could hear in my passband was his signal! Hi Hi. I don't honestly believe that he was a serious contender---most likely just wanted to make some Q's with a vintage transmitter. He never stuck around too long anyway, & I rather enjoyed the experience...

> - 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.

I think that it's entirely feasible for a select & selfish few to do something like that, Gary, but in truth, 99% of those with offensive signals in that regard probably aren't even aware that they're generating key clicks (contrary to the opinion of certain denizens of the band). Properly coupling one's rig to a linear seems simple enough on the surface, but it is NOT necessarily so. So much focus is put upon transceivers as being the major culprit in this regard, that focus is lost upon the proper whys & wherefores of our linear amplifiers, & how we might treat them. I think the Amateur community at large would benefit tremendously if the self-styled technical gurus in our midst might devote their time to well-written essays & analysis of the key click phenomenon BEYOND the simple realm of the transceiver, per se, rather than engaging in character assassination on the likes of the ON4KST Chat Room with others of a like mind. It reflects poorly upon the character of the participants, and NOBODY benefits from such behind-the-scenes sniping---least of all those who might bear the pain of clicks being heard on the band...!

~73~ de Eddy VE3CUI - VE3XZ