I participated in the ARRL 160 this past weekend. Conditions were
pretty bad and I didn't hit it real hard, mostly I ran. 25% or more of
my contacts were far (really far!) from zero beat. This seems to be
getting worse and some of the offenders are well known calls. Many
times the calls were far off my Freq. , some more than 500 - 1000 Hz.
and out of my passband. Some of these callers were strong enuf that I
would have got them on the first call if they were a little closer
close to zero beat. The only way I found some of them was I noticed
pips on my IC-7610 band scope that were out of my passband, but in
sync with my calling CQ or QRZ and I used the RIT to tune way off
Freq. to pull them in. I normally run 200 - 300 Hz bandwidth but I had
to open it to 450 Hz to hear a lot of these calls.
I think there are several reasons for this: 1. Stations click on
packet spots that are not exactly the frequency that I am on , they
hear me OK but don't bother to tune me in better. 2. Listening to a
beat note that is not what their RX is set for. (which sets the exact
TX freq.) 3. Wide CW Filter or CW filter setting (which can cause 1 &
2) 4. Using the logging software to set a TX offset to break pile ups
that is too far from normal for S & P use. (I think 100 - 200Hz should
be more that enuf for S & P)
So I would ask that everyone check out the factors I have mentioned
and try to get close to zero beat when doing S & P 73 MX & HNY Bob
W2XL
PS: This is my first post to CQ Contest after abt 57 years of
Contesting ! MX & HNY !
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
|