Before the contest, Bill suggested that we start the requesting for QSYs
for QSOs even at the beginning and even when it was not for a mult and
even when there were stations waiting. So, I did it. I think Jay was a
bit slow to do it at first, but by the end was sending everybody. I am
sure we got a lot of QSYs for QSOs and some mults from guys who only
made a few QSOs, but were able to QSY easily. Of course, a lot of guys
didn't understand the request, as AA4LR has already mentioned.
Sometimes there was silence and sometimes (but not often) I tried
again. One thing to be sure of on CW, don't send anything before the
request to QSY. If you send "R", the guy will be gone. Requests to QSY
will be easier and more easily understood on SSB, but, again, don't say
anything else before the request or you will lose some of the quicker
guys who are ready to move on up or down the band. It is more difficult
to call someone (rather than having them call you) and to get them to
QSY. The rarer YOUR section is, the more likely they are to agree.
Other than that, your friends will try to accommodate you and some will
do it if their rate has really dropped on the current band.
I had a lot of trouble sending with the paddle, so the QSYs were hard to
ask for. I need a strong sidetone to send accurately with the paddle
and Bill wanted the sidetone turned way down. So, I programmed the QSY
request into the F7 message in NA (you can do it with a seldom used
message in any program--the one that says ? or QSO before). Of course,
I had to reprogram the message whenever the other station changed its
running frequency, but that didn't take long. It did result, however,
in a couple of unplanned band changes in the rig, as the frequency was
controlled by the computer. In trying to type in Shift F7, I must
somehow have hit Alt F2 or Alt F1 and changed the band on the
transmitter as well as the computer.
We missed only a very few chances to try to move a multiplier. Of
course, in M/2, each station has a ten-minute per band mininum time
before QSY, so that makes moving mults tricky. You cannot go more than
4 bands at a time and we never did more than 3 as it turned out. You
can make skeds for later and one or two of those did work out.
I'm gald to hear why we couldn't work the W7 W6 guys well on 80. It was
really frustrating calling K6LA who did NAQP SSB M/2 with me from W4AN
in 2000 and having him CQ in my face. We could have made a few more
QSOs I suppose if the 4 square had switched correctly. Jay and I should
have noticed it during the contest, but I didn't. Bill didn't operate
the switch or I am sure he would have noticed it. We probably missed a
few western mults because of it too, as Jay tried to move a western VE
mult that never showed up.
That's about all that occurs to me at the moment. What about you, Jay?
One other thing is that sometimes you need to say that you are already
QRV on the other band. If not, the other guy may think that you didn't
hear him say Yes and won't actually QSY. So, on SSB, I'd say we are
also on ____ frequency, please call us there.
73,
John.
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