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TopBand: Re: Top Band Digest V1 #558

To: <topband@contesting.com>
Subject: TopBand: Re: Top Band Digest V1 #558
From: w4foa@voy.net (Tony Martin)
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 06:04:21 -0400
Top Band Digest wrote:
> 
> Top Band Digest       Tuesday, October 13 1998       Volume 01 : Number 558
> 
> In this issue:
> 
>     TopBand: W98ITU
>     Re: TopBand: W98ITU
>     TopBand: Re: W98ITU
>     Re: TopBand: W98ITU
>     Re: TopBand: W98ITU
>     TopBand: Propagation and GPS markers
>     TopBand: Re: W98ITU
>     TopBand: The delicate dilema of the pile-up
>     Re: TopBand: W98ITU
> 
> See the end of the digest for information about topband-digest
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
To: <topband@contesting.com>
> Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 22:57:09 -0500
> From: "Jon K. Jones" <jkjones@fn.net>
> Subject: TopBand: W98ITU
> 
> W98ITU showed up on 1.820 around 0250 utc. I believe this
> station is operating in conjunction with the ITU conference which gets 
> underway October 12th through November 6th in Minneapolis, Mn.
> Does this station count as a DXCC country like 4U1UN and 4U1ITU?
> - - N0JK
> 
> - --
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> 
> ------------------------------
> 
To: <topband@contesting.com>
> Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 09:28:26 EDT
> From: JBaumgarte@aol.com
> Subject: Re: TopBand: W98ITU
> 
> Don't know about country status--(doubt it), but it is at Paul Bittner, W0AIH
> station.
> 
> John, N0IJ
> 
> - --
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> 
> ------------------------------
> 
To: <topband@contesting.com>
> Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 08:17:02 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Ward Silver <hwardsil@WOLFENET.com>
> Subject: TopBand: Re: W98ITU
> 
> > W98ITU showed up on 1.820 around 0250 utc. I believe this
> > station is operating in conjunction with the ITU conference which gets 
> > underway October 12th through November 6th in Minneapolis, Mn.
> > Does this station count as a DXCC country like 4U1UN and 4U1ITU?
> > - N0JK
> 
> This small geopolitcial entity is long known to the residents of Minnesota
> and Wisconsin, but only suspected outside of The Black Hole.  It is none
> other than the Republic of Bittnia.  A theocracy, Bittnia prosperes under
> the benign sovereignty of the Rev. Paul Bittner using the state callsign,
> W0AIH.
> 
> Bittnia, a mountain kingdom shrouded in mystery and regalia, is best known
> for its exports of high-quality RF.  The resident population of Bittites
> undergoes dramatic fluctuations every fall with the onset of contest
> season as migrant workers converge on Shak, the capital.
> 
> The harvest typically takes place in a frantic gleaning over a period of
> 48 hours.  Permanent residents of Bittnia prepare all year for the crop,
> erecting and maintaining the metal towers and racks from which the RF is
> selected and cured.  These structures can be seen for many miles,
> invoking and reinforcing the awe of nearby residents, many of whom sit in
> their living rooms trying to receive distant broadcasts of football on
> Sunday afternoon, and saying, "Awww!"
> 
> While many have suggested Bittnia is most deserving of DXCC status as a
> separate entity, the jovial Bittner eschews such accolades, preferring
> instead to remain a comfortable haven to the workers where the
> time-honored fall cornucopia refreshes all whose sensitivities are so
> tuned.
> 
> Hail Bittnia!
> 
> 73, Ward N0AX
> DXCC Mistorian
> 
> - --
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> Problems:                 owner-topband@contesting.com
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
To: <topband@contesting.com>
> Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 12:01:23 EDT
> From: k6se@juno.com (Earl W Cunningham)
> Subject: Re: TopBand: W98ITU
> 
> I operated as KH5ITU and KG5ITU when I was W5RTQ in '74 and '75, but it
> only counted as Houston, USA.
> 
> 73, de Earl, K6SE
> 
> ___________________________________________________________________
> You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
> Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
> or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
> 
> - --
> FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/topband.html
> Submissions:              topband@contesting.com
> Administrative requests:  topband-REQUEST@contesting.com
> Problems:                 owner-topband@contesting.com
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
To: <topband@contesting.com>
> Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 12:22:30 -0400
> From: "ike" <ike@1st.net>
> Subject: Re: TopBand: W98ITU
> 
> Same here, operated KZ8ITU May 75.  Counted as
> Belmont County, Ohio.
> 73
> Ike, K8IP
> 
> - ----------
> > From: Earl W Cunningham <k6se@juno.com>
> > To: jkjones@fn.net; topband@contesting.com
> > Subject: Re: TopBand: W98ITU
To: <topband@contesting.com>
> > Date: Tuesday, October 13, 1998 12:01 PM
> >
> >
> > I operated as KH5ITU and KG5ITU when I was W5RTQ in '74 and '75, but it
> > only counted as Houston, USA.
> >
> > 73, de Earl, K6SE
> >
> >
> > ___________________________________________________________________
> > You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
> > Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
> > or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
> >
> > --
> > FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/topband.html
> > Submissions:              topband@contesting.com
> > Administrative requests:  topband-REQUEST@contesting.com
> > Problems:                 owner-topband@contesting.com
> >
> 
> - --
> FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/topband.html
> Submissions:              topband@contesting.com
> Administrative requests:  topband-REQUEST@contesting.com
> Problems:                 owner-topband@contesting.com
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
To: <topband@contesting.com>
> Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 16:18:05 +0300
> From: Vaino Lehtoranta <vaiski@dlc.fi>
> Subject: TopBand: Propagation and GPS markers
> 
> >Now for a more interesting topic:
> >Over the summer there has been a large increase in the number of digital
> >markers on 160.
> >
> >73 Tom, W8JI
> 
> I haven't seen anyone to comment on these 'markers', so I'll do it now.
> 
> The frequencies Tom mentioned are occupied by Hyperfix navigation system,
> which have been operating for two or three decades now. Closest of them
> to us are in Sweden on the Baltic coast, many of them are in UK.
> The Hyperfix signal is rather complex and sounds as if multi-frequency one.
> In addition to those there are Russian BRAS and RS-10 navigation systems
> spreading all over the topband. They sound like a series of dashes.
> As these signals are used for hydrographic purposes, they are more
> active during summer time.
> 
> 73 from Vaino, OH2LX, IARU Region 1 Auroral Studies coordinator
> - ----------------------------------------------------------
> V.K.Lehtoranta, OH2LX, POBox 50, FIN-05401 Jokela, Finland
> - ------ Tel: +358-9-4173965 ---- Fax: +358-9-4173961 ------
> E-mail: vaiski@dlc.fi - alias: oh2lx@dlc.fi & oh2lx@sral.fi
> 
> - --
> FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/topband.html
> Submissions:              topband@contesting.com
> Administrative requests:  topband-REQUEST@contesting.com
> Problems:                 owner-topband@contesting.com
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
To: <topband@contesting.com>
> Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 11:17:41 -0500
> From: Ralph Fedor <rfedor@cloudnet.com>
> Subject: TopBand: Re: W98ITU
> 
> During the ITU conference in St. Paul, the call sign W98ITU will be used
> from multiple sites in the Dakota Division.  For example, on Oct. 11 it was
> used from my station where we ran a "mini" multi-multi.  There are probably
> 20 - 25 different QTH's that will host the call during the next month.
> 
> It definitely does not count as a new country.
> 
> 73-
> Ralph - K0IR
> 
> - --
> FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/topband.html
> Submissions:              topband@contesting.com
> Administrative requests:  topband-REQUEST@contesting.com
> Problems:                 owner-topband@contesting.com
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
To: <topband@contesting.com>
> Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 06:19:20 +0800
> From: Steve Ireland <sire@omen.com.au>
> Subject: TopBand: The delicate dilema of the pile-up
> 
> After the terrific conditions that existed on 160m between Western Australia
> and North America the past weekend, I decided to put fingers to keyboard on
> a somewhat delicate matter.  It is a problem that just about every station
> that is termed DX faces - how do you deal with a pile-up in a fair manner?
> 
> During the good conditions that can prevail, in a somewhat unpredictable but
> spectacular manner, during the winter topband season, I work three types of
> operator - the died-in-wool topband types (like myself) whom I work every
> season (and some cases every week); the first timers, who may have a modest
> antenna or use low power; and  - a category which fits somewhere between the
> two - the died-in-the-wool topband types who have turned to using a modest
> antenna or low power.
> 
> The trouble with good conditions is that everybody gets excited and calls
> and it is hard to please/work everybody. Although I try and work my old QRO
> mates, my old QRP mates and first timers, someone inevitably gets left out.
> Not that VK6VZ is anything special by the way, it's just that I happen to
> carry the tag 'DX' and live in a Zone that you can count the number of
> active topbanders on the fingers of one hand.
> 
> Actually, I'm not knocking the VK6VZ position on the 160m food chain - it's
> a nice position to be in, apart being so far from everywhere else and never
> hearing South America.
> 
> When conditions are really good, I try and give the QRP types and the first
> timers a VK6 contact, because it's the only shot they get.  On the other
> hand, I also like to say hello to my old QRO mates, who are the life and the
> soul of the band for me, especially when conditions return to their usual
> awfulness.
> 
> Over the last few days, I have received some e-mails from people saying that
> they have been trying to work VK6 for a while and can never get
> past/through/around the dreaded pile-up because the large pile of regulars
> who are calling me.  My usual reply in these situations is that I always
> have an ear open for the new callsigns and if you are on the band regularly
> enough, you will always work me eventually, as long as your signal is
> audible at this end.  Just to prove this, why, I even worked one station
> running 100W and a modest antenna twice on Sunday night - once using his own
> call and once for his club station.
> 
> The station that was worked twice uses what he calls the 'constant presence'
> approach to DXing - which is what I was taught by my 160m elmer as the only
> way to work DX on the band -  you've got to be there every day, for as long
> as possible, ready, listening and calling as smartly as you can.
> 
> To help the odds in the very good conditions, I guess it is a matter of me
> (and the other DX) trying some 'QSX up 1' type stuff in a bid to spread
> stations out a little bit and make things even fairer still. On the other
> hand, when the band is crowded during good conditions, QSXing can be a good
> way to upset people by taking up bandwidth.
> 
> Recently, I had this startingly unoriginal idea about special 'first
> timer/QRP' nights, but after some thought realised these would inevitably
> fall on nights when the 160m conditions were bad...
> 
> What it comes down to this is us DX will always do their best to keep
> everone happy, by whatever means is at our disposal - receiving antennas,
> QSX 1 up, etc.  However, anyone out there who really wants to work VK6 or
> any other 160m DX can help the DX and themselves by putting up the biggest
> Tx antenna they can and running as much power as they are legally
> entitled/can afford to make our job as DX easy as possible.
> 
> After all, this 160m DXing is a cooperative sort of thing AND a competitive
> sort of thing after all.  Sometimes it makes my ears - and head - ache - and
> it ain't always just the band noise that does it. Ouch, who threw that
> brickbat?!!
> 
> Vy 73,
> 
> Steve, VK6VZ
> 
> - --
> FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/topband.html
> Submissions:              topband@contesting.com
> Administrative requests:  topband-REQUEST@contesting.com
> Problems:                 owner-topband@contesting.com
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
To: <topband@contesting.com>
> Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 18:01:17 -0400
> From: Tom Frenaye <frenaye@pcnet.com>
> Subject: Re: TopBand: W98ITU
> 
> Nope... W98ITU is in use at the ITU conference in Minneapolis.  N98ITU will
> be used during CQWW at W0AIH's QTH.  Counts as zone 4/USA...
> 
>                         -- Tom
> 
> At 09:28 AM 10/13/98 -0400, N0IJ wrote:
> >
> >Don't know about country status--(doubt it), but it is at Paul Bittner, W0AIH
> >station.
> >
> >John, N0IJ
> >
> >--
> >FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/topband.html
> >Submissions:              topband@contesting.com
> >Administrative requests:  topband-REQUEST@contesting.com
> >Problems:                 owner-topband@contesting.com
> >
> 
> - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> - ----------------------------------------
> e-mail: k1ki@arrl.org   ARRL New England Division Director
> http://www.arrl.org/
> Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box 386, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444
> 
> - --
> FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/topband.html
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> Problems:                 owner-topband@contesting.com
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> End of Top Band Digest V1 #558
> ******************************
> 
> --
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Very well done Ward.  Congratulations on your imagination and
writing skill.  73
Tony, W4FOA

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