Topband: : V84SAA

[Richard (Rick) Karlquist]

On 2/10/2019 10:19 AM, Larry via Topband wrote:
. I only hear a few west coast stations calling them and the USA 
stations are having trouble hearing. They came back to a Calif station 
three times before the N6 answered. Pretty strange.
> 
> Larry/ n7dd

I might have been that N6.  I heard part of
my call sign 3 times before I was sure he
was calling me.  At least at that time, he
was in and out of the noise, and definitely
not very loud.  With his zero noise level,
I should have been easy copy at his end.

The worst thing I can do is merely guess that I
are being called, and respond "5NN" at the
same time the station actually being called
is also 5NN'ing and then the DX says "TU".
Maybe no one else was calling but he messed
up my call.  Did I work him, or not?
N7RK out your way is a serious DX'er
and I have been in the same pileup with
him before.  Then there is N6RO, W6RK,
and we used to have the legendary K6RK
(now SK) etc.  Trust but verify.

Unfortunately, there is no Q signal meaning
"I can hear you, but I'm not sure who you
think you are calling", so all I can do is
send my call again.  Jeff, being a top op,
I'm sure will get the QSO for me eventually.
Jeff magnanimously sent "N6RK TU" instead
of just "TU" to be sure.  I can always
count on Jeff.

Rick N6RK