Topband: AS / EU QRM - The Cocktail Party Effect

[Fred Kleber]

Hi Top Banders,
Having operated from the other end on a number of continents, I offer the following explanations of why NA hams may wonder why they can't work distant stations: 
SE Asia - The amount of non-ham QRM in the ham bands is unbelievable.  Most notable are the Indonesian (and probably other countries) fisherman who populate wide swaths of spectrum and have little to no regard for spectrum allocations.  They just go buy a cheap ham rig, make it general coverage, and off they go.  Additionally the beacons on fishing nets can also create quite a racket.  Oh yes, the commercial power suppliers in poorer countries most likely don't even care about repairing line nose.  One other challenge is the echo from NA stations which is frequently present on the low bands.  Pileups particularly exacerbate this phenomenon.  
Europe - Here's the cocktail party analogy.  When a cocktail party starts, a few people come in the door, grab a drink and start talking to each other.  As more people join the party, the room fills up and the ambient noise (QRM) rises.  In order to be communicate, guests talk louder.  More people join the party and the audible QRM noise floor rises.  In the radio world parallel, equate guest's speech with RF and talking louder with running more power.  Then consider that many countries don't effectively regulate TX power output, and you have a real mess.  Most north american's can't understand when I tell them that if you're not at least S-9 on 80-20 meters, you're most likely not going to be heard.  
I hope you find this information useful.
73 & good DX,Fred, NP2X / K9VV et al.