Well, that's over....
Last weekend and the CW weekend were like two different contests here in the
Black Hole. For SSB, 15 was the place to be and the low bands were the pits.
I could have forgotten about 160 and 75 meters entirely, saved my ears and
decreased my score by about 15 percent....
Some observations and questions:
The discussion about insisting on the CQing station acknowledging a callsign
correction: This (insufficient acknowledgment) happened to me several times.
Generally, I called back and made a nuisance of myself until I got, "N9JF,
you're in the log!" If the pileup was big enough that getting through the
*first* time was a chore, I usually just wrote him off and left. Maybe a
big enough percentage of "NIL's" will convey a message. Does ARRL check
this closely?
A couple of years ago, I swore I would never again do a single-band 40 in a
phone contest because of so many stations not only ID-ing infrequently but
not specifying a listening frequency, due to packet-induced pileups. This
year, I really felt that the DX stations were MUCH BETTER about doing both
with reasonable regularity. Was this my imagination? Am I mellowing with
age? Naw....
The last time conditions were reasonably good from here to JA in the ARRL
test was about 5 years ago. It seems to me that the JA's were doing more
running and less S&P-ing this year, both on phone and CW. There were some
crushing 100-watt JA's on 15. Is this a change of philosophy on the part of
the JA contest community, improved station capability, or my imagination?
It was sure nice to see a lot of them. With the massive JA ham population
and 15 and 10 meter propagation coming back, what a whopping QSO total will
be possible in a year or two!
There has been quite a bit said about the advantage of having operators at a
multi-multi who are fluent in Spanish to work the South American crowd.
With absolutely pounding signals from LU/CX/CE on 10 meters both days, I
spent a certain amount of time calling CQ with *NO* answers. Does this
mean: a) I was weak (but I was getting through to CQing stations on the
first call); b) my Spanish is even worse than I thought (but the South
Americans I ragchew with seem to think it's OK); or c) absolutely every
LU/CX/CE with even a remote interest in contesting is already CQing; or d)
other....?
Funniest things heard this weekend:
Scene 1:
DX: "CQ contest...DX#DX"
me: "November Nine Juliet Foxtrot"
DX: "November Nine Juliet Foxtrot...five nine Kilowatt"
me: "Thanks, you're five nine Illiois"
DX: "Okay, correction, November Eight Juliet Foxtrot"
[HUH?}
[weakly, via backscatter]:
N8JF: "Thanks"
DX: "QRZed"
me: "November NINE Juliet Foxtrot"
DX: "Okay, November Nine Juliet Foxtrot...five nine Kilowatt"
me: "Yeah, I'm here too. You're five nine Illinois"
DX: "QSL. Okay, are there any other Juliet Foxtrots"?
[K9JF, where are you when we need you?]
Scene 2:
[40 meters...transmitting on 7060]
JA1...: "CQ USA listening 7250"
[simultaneously...transmitting on 7250]
K1..: "CQ Japan, listening 7060"
I didn't stay around to see how this one played out....
Wildest pileup:
9M6BG on 15 meters with about an hour to go.
All in all, it was OK, for a phone contest....
73, Jim N9JF
"A person's a person, no matter how small!" 'Horton Hears a Who': Doctor Seuss
--
CQ-Contest on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/_cq-contest/
Administrative requests: cq-contest-REQUEST@contesting.com
|