I think it might be helpful for the SECC folks who are not in the M/2 mode
to know how Bill has his station set up for that type of operation. He has
three radios. Bill and John operated separate radios on whatever band was
hot at the time. John had the run station and Bill's job was to S&P on the
same band John was calling CQ on. I had the easy job. All I did for 12
hours was call CQ on the second-hottest band, or the band on which we might
pick up more mults. One reason I didn't move people at first is because
when the contest started I was thinking in terms of mults, and most of
those first stations I worked were in sections that are plentiful. But
another reason was because I have never been good at asking people to move
so it took a while to "get in the groove." However, it does not take long
before it becomes very easy. Like John, there were quite a few times when
I never received a response after asking a station to move; others
explained they were operating on that one band only; and others were very
accommodating. It soon reached the point that one of the most fun aspects
of the contest was when I asked a station to move, then a minute or so
later I saw their callsign on the computer screen after they had moved and
John worked them. When you have a second operator on another band, it
makes it much easier to move people (at least for me) than if you have to
change bands yourself, risking losing your run frequency when you do. I
always had John's frequency written down on a piece of paper and used my
paddle to ask for the QSY. There were a few very slow code people I did
not ask to move, because I thought it would take way too much
time. However, regardless of how slow they were, if they were a mult I
asked them to move. At least I meant to.
We actually could have had more mults, because I remember one case in
particular when I simply did not notice that we needed a station (for a
mult) on another band. Basically nothing but operator error. It probably
happened more than once.
I think I got a lot of calls from the "non-contesters." I'm sure most
people reading this have also been reading ad nauseam about contesting code
speed. I had the speed set on 30 wpm and did not change it throughout the
entire contest. I had some very slow guys calling in -- and frankly was
surprised at how many of those people quickly said they would QSY to the
other band.
This was my first time operating at W4AN, and the first time using NA, and
although Bill carefully explained his antenna setup, I'm a
tribander-on-the-roof guy. I didn't worry about antennas. (Sorry
Bill) Wherever they were pointing, that's where I called CQ. I never
noticed the problem on 80M.
The ten-minute rule was a consideration for us, and it was a little bit of
a pain to keep up with it. We would note the time of the first QSO on a
band so we would know when we could leave the band. There was only one
time when I went to a band to get a multiplier, then worked a few stations
-- then spent about 5 minutes calling CQ in a vacuum before I could return
to the band I wanted to be on.
One other small point: when a station said they would QSY to the other
band, I would often send "FB" and try to convey my pleasure that he was
going to do it, hoping that he would be encouraged to actually move.
It was a learning experience for me. Bill has put together an awesome
station, as everyone knows, and he and John make an amazing team. John is
a walking Super Check Partial. It seems he knows every station -- and all
their previous callsigns. It was a pleasure to join them.
73,
Jay, K4OGG
At 06:09 PM 1/14/2002, John T. Laney, III wrote:
>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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>Administrative requests: secc-REQUEST@contesting.com
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