[UK-CONTEST] Split Frequency in Contests?

[Andy Cook, G4PIQ]

Just catching up on this debate after getting back from XT2DX yesterday
afternoon - good to work so many of you from there.

I ran split (fixed - UP 1) in one particular instance at XT2DX this weekend
and that was on 160 where we were probably really quite weak (very limited
Tx antenna choice this time since a building had sprung up where we put the
vertical last year), and co-channel would have meant that the pile-up would
have had to stop calling completely for anyone to hear us. On the other
bands, natural encouragement of the pile-up to spread out a few hundred Hz
was all that was really needed. 

Sorry that some folks missed us on 80 & 160. We did all we could with
receive antennas in a very limited space (beverage - along a concrete wall
and almost past someones door, a K9AY and a mag loop), but the noise floor
in the centre of Ouaga was dire. It was just like EME on 160 lots of the
time - one character out of the noise at a time! 

73,

Andy, G4PIQ
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim Martin [mailto:MM0BQI at theRSGB.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2002 4:01 PM
> To: uk-contest-X-contesting.com-POP-1
> Subject: [UK-CONTEST] Split Frequency in Contests?
> 
> 
> I think for the first time last weekend I heard contest 
> stations working
> split. They were not exactly exotic or rare prefixes so why the split
> operation?  Others like XT2DX and HC8N had huge pile-ups but 
> always managed
> to skilfully work their way through.
> Is this to do with the calibre of the operator or a ploy to 
> spread out the
> callers and have an operator work the stations and another 
> 'tee' up the next
> QSO? Muscle should not be a substitute for skill.
> Whatever the reason, many times over the weekend I heard 
> chunks of the band
> rendered useless by this practice and felt sorry for the 
> stations who had
> been running on the previously clear frequency and then being 
> drowned under
> a sea of callsigns. In a contest situation I would rather  
> take my 'little
> pistols' chances in the pile-up and if it's too busy try 
> again later. For
> the last hour of the contest I called XT2DX on 80m along with 
> 'hundreds' of
> others, unfortunatly, I didn't make it this time, but there 
> is always next
> year. That's what makes it fun!
> Jim   MM0BQI
> 
> 
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