[UK-CONTEST] CQWW SSB - Some thoughts

[Roger G3SXW]

Hello James,
The 'bully boys' from zones 15 + 16 + 20 have played it this way for many 
years. Yes, CQ mag does care but until now the multi-kilowatt amplifiers 
have been untouchable. The new 'Visitation' rule could perhaps identify some 
of these monster amplifiers or perhaps scare some of them off. But please 
remember that this problem is especially suffered by those located at first 
hop distance from e.g. Hungary, Bulgaria, i.e. UK, especially when they are 
beaming towards USA. It's quite hard to persuade those located in other 
parts of the world just how damaging it is to UK contesting.

We find sometimes that an e-mail from CQWW Committee helps: we directly ask 
a station if they were abiding by rule x. We could ask these stations if 
they were transmitting with max 1.5kw per band, as in the rules. At very 
least this would let them know that we are on to them. Perhaps those on this 
list who suffer from this problem would care to nominate (to me privately if 
you prefer) the stations to whom such a letter be sent.

Anyway, keep smiling. We'll crack it one day!
73 de Roger/G3SXW.




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Hill" <jrh at g0fhm.net>
To: "UK contest list" <uk-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, October 26, 2009 8:07 PM
Subject: [UK-CONTEST] CQWW SSB - Some thoughts


> Hi Guys,
>
> Well, this year turned out differently, we ended up doing a single band
> 20m entry, due to various constraints such as the field out the back
> being newly planted with winter wheat, so the K9AY array and verticals
> etc had to go west, as well as a shortage of ops - 1x full time, 1x part
> time & myself 75% time. Not enough.
>
> One strange, notable thing from our part of the world (JO02), was the
> distinct lack of OZ on 20m! We only heard one, and that was weak, and
> was an even bigger struggle to be heard by them! Add working ON & PA
> "off the back" and being called by an MM6 station, it made for some
> interesting propagation, but only 102 DXCC.
>
> One thing, however, is that I have noticed and increase in over the last
> few contests, is the alarming rise in "bully boy" tactics, among the
> Eastern European "Big Gun" stations. On more than one occasion, we had
> one open up about 400Hz from us, and just let rip. No QRL? or similar,
> just straight in with the CQ Contest. We were running a K3, and could
> hear them, so whatever they were running, they would have been able to
> hear us too, Even when beaming at them. This year, we decided to stand
> our ground, and actively chase them away from our QRG, and in 4/5
> occasions, it worked after a short while. Mentioning no callsigns, but
> one of them was disqual'ed last year for a different offence.
>
> Sure, CQWW is always a tight squeeze on the bands and a certain amount
> of give & take is called for, as well as tolerating "splatter monkeys"
> of all nationalities. Even with the stonking RX on the K3 it was a
> headache still, but with behaviour such as this, it made it all the much
> harder, and we dropped a hell of a lot of Q's because of it, as we
> simply couldnt hear the stations calling us.
>
> Do the people at CQ Magazine actually give a monkeys about what goes on?
> as I'm considering lodging a formal protest. One thing that was
> suggested, was having a few SDR setups around the globe monitoring
> things, and a team of volunteers going through the resultant recordings.
> Sure, it's a lot of work, but surely if a couple were to fall foul, it
> would bring the others into line eventually? is this already in place?
>
> Apart from that, it was an enjoyable weekend, and a big pity we couldnt
> go multi band... I was mult hunting on Sunday, and had one eye on the
> cluster, and 15 & 10 looked to be in great shape!
>
> James G0FHM
>
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