[UK-CONTEST] Zone 34/ the cluster (was CQWW CW (long post))

[Gerry Lynch]

brian coyne wrote:
> z34 (do we ever?, maybe as we are so close they are in the 'skip' zone
>   
This is probably true as far as Cairo goes, but they weren't on this 
year at all as I think ST2T is now back home, and there was no-one on 
from Egypt.  Some joker appeared on 80m signing SU9ER in the last few 
hours but was by all accounts Slim at his work - deliberate conflation 
of SU9NC and SU1ER's callsigns I would think.  The real SU9NC was at K1RX.
> I was also annoyed by the pileup behaviour om mlts and blamed the cluster. very pleased to see others with the same view. Many will not agree but I feel the cluster has no place in a competetive environment. Without it scores would decrease, but does that really matter, is it important to see scores increasing year on year?
I have mixed views on this.  There are many complaints mirroring those 
on this reflector in 3830 writeups from other parts of Europe.

Firstly, I entirely agree that a lot of the pileup behaviour really 
stank.  It always does.  The difference was that it only usually gets 
that bad in the last few hours of the contest when new mults appear on 
the low bands and Eus (including us) QRM one another into oblivion, and 
all the serious competitors have little else to chase so are in with 
their boots on.  This year, it was already bad by the early hours of 
Sunday morning.  J88DR's 80m pileup just before I knocked off for some 
kip about 0300 on Sunday was a real horror story, for example.

Is this all because of packet?  Well, yes and no.  We do have to 
remember that packet has been around for almost a generation now.  I 
love the 'wasn't it all better before packet' comments because, despite 
having dabbled in contests since 1991, I can't actually remember a time 
when packet pileups weren't a cause for major complaint.  While one can 
abolish packet assistance for contest entrants - likely with huge 
resistance - the vast majority of people on in CQWW are casual 
participants not submitting an entry, and nothing in the world can or 
should stop them clicking on spots.

So, ugly packet pileups have been there for a long time, and will be for 
the foreseeable future, and Satan's Skimmer will merely add to the 
problem.  Oh well, that's life.  In my view, this year's horrors were 
caused by the poor conditions.  With no 10m to speak of, 15 weak, 20 
closing early and even 40 going a bit punk in the wee hours, more and 
more operators were chasing mults on fewer bands.  Unsurprisingly, given 
the long expected lack of solar activity, there also seemed to be fewer 
serious contest expeditions than I can remember.  Recipe for chaos: add 
just as many Eu ops to fewer bands than before and set them chasing 
fewer multipliers.

If you are confronted with a monster packet pileup, there are really two 
successful strategies for a serious competitor, and which to apply 
depends on the category you are in.

If you are an unassisted single op, especially if low power single op, 
the most successful strategy is probably to turn the dial.  It is 
unlikely that you have cleaned the bands of available mults.  The horror 
pileup on 7X0RY or T77C delivers no more points to you, in the unlikely 
event that you bust it, than the as yet unworked OH0 or CN a little up 
the band who has already made several thousand QSOs and is probably 
begging for calls at that point.

If you are a serious HP single-op, the decision might be a bit more 
balanced.  And if you are a serious multi-op with good antennas, then 
you are probably running out of things to work at this stage and you 
really need to get stuck in.  And if you are capable of being 
competitive in a multi-op category at the European level, you are 
capable of breaking most pileups.  And a good mult-op station operator, 
in the dying hours of a contest, is a bit like a good modern prop 
forward, capable of getting to the pileup with speed, hitting it with 
considerable power and clearing out the opposition.  But there is a 
difference between controlled aggression and blind calling.  You need to 
listen and time your calls to perfection.  Not calling in the first 5 
seconds after a station signs and getting the feel of the pileup can be 
useful, especially in the first few overs.  And never ever keep calling 
when you hear the DX come back to someone else, because you are just 
minimising your own chances of getting the QSO by slowing rate and 
chasing less skilled DX stations away entirely.  And tail ending can be 
a recipe for disaster here as you will simply cause an orgy of ill-timed 
calls from people who can't even hear the DX - unfortunately, as I 
LOOOOOOOOVE tail ending.

And when they go 'QRT' quickly check up to 5 kHz or so LF and HF because 
often they just move their TX a couple of kHz to avoid the pileup.

So I agree, I hate ugly packet pileups.  I lost a precious and treasured 
Zone 1 double mult on top band because KL7HBK went QRT when the stations 
who he was calling couldn't hear him coming back to them and he took a 
scunner and went QRT.  I could hear him quite clearly under a barrage of 
Russians but they were obviously a lot stronger with each other than 
they were with me and had no chance.  I didn't even know that you 
*could* work Zone 1 on top band.  I was gutted!

But I love charging into ugly packet pileups with a good signal and, 
Aussie Rules style, jumping on the opposition's shoulders and nailing 
that big fat double mult.  There is no greater test of contesting 
skill.  Except maybe for being the DX and keeping a big, unruly, Eu 
packet pileup under control.

73

Gerry GI0RTN