Before returning to Top Band this past yea to contest, I contacted a few of
the better known experts about how the band plan has been evolving where I
could call CQ and avoid the ownership issues with some of the top band
crowd. Not too much had changed on the band for my 16 years, but I'm still a
newbie compared to most, and I always learn something new by asking-
especially in preparing for this year's contesting-
Away from asking questions to real top band experts, I have noticed the
following differences in comparing to the ARRL' Considerate Operator's
Frequency Guide to my own experience--
According to the Considerate Operator's Frequency Guide published by the
ARRL, here is the following information on Top band's band plan then my own
personal take on it--
1.800-2.000 CW Just avoid CW around the SSB nets especially
above 1.900MHz............they can get cranky-
1.800-1.810 digital From what I have told and have heard, 1.810MHz
seems to be the calling digital frequency- but I don't hear a lot of it-
1.810 QRP CW Calling frequency.......................sure, what ever- I
would suggest calling on a clear frequency +- 2KHz of 1.815 and avoid the
/QRP stuff- it is so, well, so un-QRO'ish
1.843-2.000 SSB, SSTV, or other wide band modes ... I assume other wide band
modes include the QRO SSB Nets and guys using full legal to talk across
state lines? (just kidding, sort of)
1.910 SSB QRP- Reality check- what 160M DX'er is tuned above 1.850MHz, and
that is stretching it- Then again, SSB DX on 160M for a stateside op to call
CQ QRP is rare anywhere-
1.995-2.000 Experimental Every antenna heard and used to listen on Top
Band is experimental! I don't quite get it with this one-
1.999-2.000 beacons OMG- Really? No one is tuned to listen here who
really cares about beacons- (just kidding) your best at the low end of the
band- 1.801 for example- but beacon from where? If it is a rare DX location,
the welcome mats role out, if it is a guy in Texas, well, my guess is that
it will eventually create a flaming thread-
Now according to the experts, and I really mean the guys who are considerate
and very well versed.......CW is pretty much the language of DX'ers on Top
Band. And from 1.811-1.842MHz, this is where DX occurs. It is just the
common sense of building an antenna for 160M as most have high Q's, that is,
very limited band-width- if you want to talk stateside, just hang out above
1.980 and have fun-
>From 1.815-1.838Mhz, a lot of DX is heard, and international DX calling is
from 1.830-1.835MHz. Although a stateside station calling CQ in this 5Khz
always seems "uncomfortable to hear", as you just know it is going to get a
QRM'er in there who has been listening here for DX calling CQ-
During a contest, and most are CW, 1.800-1.860MHz will be busy- if you are
new to topband in contesting, I would suggest S/P tactics more than trying a
run- With a 100 watts, I ran a lot in this year's ARRL 160M CW, over 500
QSO's with a vertical and a 100W, but it was being in a pen ball machine as
big QRO stations with listening antennas not directed at me, typically just
CQ'd right on top of us- (I never get peeved on 160M about this, but I do on
20M, go figure- -
73 es Gud DX
paul N0AH or Fred in Toronto, avid SWL hobby jock-
I found good runs for over 20 minutes here and there between 1.801-1.820
then I tried to sqeeze in around 1.839+- 1 KHz, and sometimes, around
1.825MHz but this is the area, +-5 KHz, where you really get knocked around
trying to establish a run- Because even if you get away from the stateside
QRO op pounding on you, that nice quiet spot you just found is also being
checked out by DX anf just wait, you have people answering your CQ but they
are not talking to you- just the DX guy who took your frequency! Har!
All my 2 cents- said with a sense of dry humor- don't take it too seriously-
but I think for what its worth, I would encourage anyone new to topband to
get on the topband reflector, ask around to some of the frequent "sane"
posters, and ask about what you want to do on the band and see what they
tell you- Most of these guys are very fb ops- You'll get great advice-
The culture above 1.900 and below 1.900, really more like below 1.850MHz,
are vastly different. pretty much rag chewers vs DX'ers and everyone one
pays good attention to the old school rules. I would suggest that if you
are like most of us with limited space, your potential antenna for top band
is going to have a very high Q- My old Butternut HF2V with the 160M had
about 7KHz, and add another 10 with the rig's AT. My Cushcraft 160M
vertical has 15Khz of usable bandwidth, add 30 with the rig's A/T and all of
the band with my Dentron 2000 mega tuner- but I never go above 1.850MHz as
it is not my crowd- So being contester mostly on this band, and a little
pistol with no amp- I'm tuned around 1.820MHz and have had good luck this
year with it-
-----Original Message-----
From: kr2q@optimum.net
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2011 6:42 AM
To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: [CQ-Contest] is there really a DX "window" on 160
RE: recent "beacon" activity + associated "comments"
So OUTSIDE of contest, is there really a DX "hot spot" on 160?
Sounded like a fun project. I went to DX Summit (a reasonable source) and
asked for 1000
of the most recent spots on 160 (I think I selected CW).
About 100 of them were for Ws and VEs, so I deleted those (not "DX") from
the protester's
perspective.
I then sorted by callsign and found the distribution per QRG (round to the
nearest integer).
Here is what I found
I know the columns don't line up, but you get the idea. Remember, this is a
count of
CALLSIGNS
QRG # calls spotted % of all DX spots
1810 4 0.9%
1811 13 2.8%
1812 12 2.6%
1813 6 1.3%
1814 15 3.2%
1815 16 3.4%
1816 10 2.1%
1817 13 2.8%
1818 17 3.6%
1819 21 4.5%
1820 16 3.4%
1821 22 4.7%
1822 21 4.5%
1823 19 4.1%
1824 31 6.7%
1825 21 4.5%
1826 14 3.0%
1827 15 3.2%
1828 18 3.9%
1829 18 3.9%
1830 23 4.9%
1831 16 3.4%
1832 18 3.9%
1833 12 2.6%
1834 5 1.1%
1835 3 0.6%
1839 12 2.6%
1840 9 1.9%
1841 3 0.6%
1844 4 0.9%
1845 8 1.7%
1846 1 0.2%
1847 4 0.9%
1848 1 0.2%
1850 8 1.7%
1851 1 0.2%
1853 1 0.2%
1854 2 0.4%
1855 1 0.2%
1860 1 0.2%
1861 2 0.4%
1877 1 0.2%
1880 1 0.2%
1888 1 0.2%
1906 1 0.2%
1911 1 0.2%
1925 1 0.2%
1930 1 0.2%
1945 1 0.2%
1980 1 0.2%
total 466 100.0%
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
|