On Thu, 6 Apr 2006, Kenneth E. Harker wrote:
>
> This is unfortunately incorrect.
>
> I have operated a lot of contests from a four-band station
> with individual monoband yagis at ~90' and brick amplifiers
> or better located in the center of a relatively good sized
> city in Texas. Several years ago, as an experiment, I
> operated an entire September contest never once calling CQ
> on 144.200. I answered people calling CQ there, but all of
> my CQing I did on 144.205, 144.210, etc... I operated the
> contest full time and only took a few hours off in the middle
> of the night. The result? I could count the number of
> stations that answered my off-144.200 CQs on one hand.
> My score compared to previous years dropped 70%. It was
> abysmal.
>
Around Illinois/Indiana/Wisconsin/Iowa etc. most of the activity clusters
around 144.200 but does spread out a little. I generally listen from
144.150 to 144.275 for stations. The microwavers in this area hang out
around 144.260 or even call CQ there. I've done so myself. Sometimes
this results in QSO's and working up the bands.
Activity often seems to peak within the last couple hours of the contest.
144.200 has gotten congested at these times. I can recall hearing a couple
SSB stations and a couple CW stations all on 144.200. I called one CW
station on CW once and got answered by one of the SSB stations.
If I'm going to call CQ, I generally do it around .195 or .205. That
seems to result in some QSO's too.
I've found a few good hills around here that are ~ 50 to 100 feet above
avarage terrain. Running QRP in contests is a little bit of a
disadvantage but I definitely have a height advantage on some of these
hills.
Maybe I can return to Bald Knob some time. The one contest I did there
(June 2005 with N5RP) got struck hard by Murphy. But I think that site
has lots of possibilities!
73, Zack W9SZ
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