Its ironic, that because of the digital characteristics of the CW
transmission, its been sucked into the processed and distributed world of
the internet and changed the face of contesting. Skimmer and RBN have
changed the need to tune as certainly someone has picked up the signal and
broadcast it before you've discovered it. Only the unassisted op is tuning
by and thankfully is competing with others doing the same. However even
those have benefitted from the efficiency of the process as everyone can
find you now. The challenge is now, using the system and dealing with the
onslaught when it comes.
However, in SSB, it's a different story. You are not instantly spotted.
People can and do tune by and discover you, before a crowd has shown up -
just like the old days. Its fun to see on both ends. I CQ'd A LOT in last
weekend's contest - about 85% of the time. And there were sometimes 10 or
15 mins before I was spotted. What was the rate? It depends, but at least
half the time it was over 100 an hour. People were searching on their own
and found a new one - Vermont. In one case I probably worked 20 - 25
stations before the "spotted" gusher came. Some of those stations were 5 W
or 100W with very low signals. Would they have made the Q chasing spots -
not easily - maybe not at all.
What was the pleasure experienced on both sides of these "natural Qs"?
Wonderful for both sides. Probably had 300 over the weekend that I could
tell based on the "gusher delay". Of course there could be many more of
unassisted ops tuning by at any time, but you can't tell then.
The one that I enjoyed most was the JA run on 15M Saturday. I worked
probably 20 JAs in nice orderly fashion, with only a few competing during
the process. Then the onslaught came. Evidenced by familiar Multi Op
callsigns. Many of those first 20 struggled with English and had 50 or 100W
powers. I worked probably 75 JAs in that run. Good for those first 20 for
finding me and getting into the log.
Ed N1UR
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