First let me say that I did not operate on 40m during this CQ WW SSB contest
but this discussion is one I'm very interested in.
Here in Barbados and I suspect in a few other countries, we're licensed to
transmit any mode on any band except 30m, which only allows for digital
modes.
Unlike the US, where each class of licencee is allowed specific segments,
there are no "segments" as such.
Personally I tend to follow "practice" and simply use the Region II IARU
band-plan as a guide. I believe I've had to transmit down at say 7030KHz SSB
in contests before and almost always feel it's a little low in the band.
This year, I was SOSB on 20m and during the day when EU is open, it's common
practice for ops in the Caribbean to drop below the US phone band and use
say 14125 to 14150KHz. This year, on day 1, I ran stations between the
digital stations somewhere around 14113 -- and there were several stations
below me down past 14100.
I'm not sure what's happening -- whether there are simply more stations on
during contests compared to the past or that 20m and 40m are now the "money"
bands for the big-guns given the current (lack of) propagation.
It's an interesting debate and this year, I also thought there were stations
much much lower on 80m. I heard US stations listening down below 3600KHz,
which I would say is really really low -- I believe if I'm working split to
US on 80, I'll transmit somewhere between say 3650 and 3750 KHz.
Interestingly, on 20m, where there were wall to wall signals during most of
the the times the band was open, there were still three or four nets running
-- I was amazed that they could hear each other, but presumably they were
using high power and had excellent propagation between the net members--
(read down the street from each other - hi hi )
Anyway thanks to everyone for the challenge. 20m was tough this year. I felt
bruised at the end of it all. So did my score.
Regards,
Dean - 8P6SH / 8P2K in the 'tests
-----Original Message-----
From: cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Hank Kohl K8DD
Sent: October 28, 2006 1:27 PM
To: N7MAL
Cc: CQ-CONTEST@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] SSB in CW band
N7MAL wrote:
> I would like to suggest to the CQWWSSB guru's that a cut-off frequency be
> set for 40 meters. I think 7025 and above is more than reasonable for SSB
> operation during the contest. This year is worse than last and has been
> getting progressively worse every year. There have been many pleas in past
> years but they fall on deaf ears at the contest committee.
Who is going to enforce it?
How is it going to be enforced?
Disqualify a large operation because they slipped below the suggest
frequency limit?
Are you up for the job?
> There is plenty
> of unused frequency spectrum above 7025. I checked several times and there
> was no valid reason for any station to operate below 7025. It might be
> different if every 2.5 khz there was someone operating in the contest but
> there wasn't. In fact there were several 20-25 khz segments where no one
was
> operating, yet there were stations below 7025 operating in the contest.
>
Maybe there were holes on 40M in Bullhead City, but here in the Thumb of
Michigan
there were not any 20 - 25 KHz segments empty last night up to about up
to about
0500Z when I crashed. It was wall to wall with a lot of frequencies
supporting two
(and maybe more) stations on the same frequency listening to different
frequencies
above 7150. And that's with a K1/100 and a dipole up about 55 ft. It
was packed with
EU, AF, Caribbean and VE stations from 7026 to 7100 with a couple below
7025.
And I'd bet it was crowded even more if you would have listened on the
antennas at
KC1XX, K1TTT, or W3LPL
It sounded a lot like it did several years ago when we went to FP for CQ
WW SSB - real
hard to find a frequency on 40 to call CQ and listen up in the US segment.
73 Hank K8DD
> Thank you
>
>
> MAL
> N7MAL
> BULLHEAD CITY, AZ
> http://www.ctaz.com/~suzyq/N7mal.htm
> _______________________________________________
> CQ-Contest mailing list
> CQ-Contest@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
>
> .
>
>
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