> At the same time as I was not getting results in the
> window, I could
> move off in S+P mode, and usually be heard by the guys I
> called, so I
> seemed to have propagation. I must say, however, that the
> Q often
> started with the other guy hearing something, sending ??,
> my repeating,
> and gradually building the contact from there - not
> exactly armchair copy!
> So why did I have no results from calling in the window?
> I can't
> explain it. Just put it down to another of the oddities
> of this band!>
My perspective of this is:
1.) When a DX station is in the Window very few other people
*without packet* capable of running people and none of the
inexperienced 160 ops will be looking there. Only those who
have a second receiver they are tuning or who are using
packet or sitting waiting to answer DX would find you.
2.) When people call, they often call too short or give up
too soon. Antennas can be so directive that a station that
is S-9 will be in the S1-2 noise floor when a sharp antenna
is not pointed in the correct direction. With at least 8
directions to scan through, a quick call or a single call
will not work for normal signals. Hence the repeated QRZ and
?? calls. People who would be quite workable if they sent at
a reasonable pace and repeated ONLY their calls often give
up.
3.) When signals are weak, there might only be one or two
arrays out of four (at this location) that hear the weak
signal. There not only are eight directions to choose from,
there are two or more arrays in those directions. Even with
fast switching it takes several seconds of scanning to find
someone who is weak.
4.) Clicks were getting better, now they seem to be getting
worse. In the ARRL 160 a loud W3 who apparently changed rigs
recently and who was 2kHz wide parked a few hundred Hz below
me, and that wiped out about 10-20 JA stations that would
otherwise have been workable. Stations that were persistent
and repeated their calls enough could be put together, but
not the single or two call guys. Split operation would help
this....and 1kHz is NOT enough.
5.) QRN can be bad. This was the case in the Stew according
to K4BAI. John said he had to put attenuators in
line to copy anyone during the morning hours.
6.) Speed is bad. People need to slow down on 160 unless
they are working stations one after the other that are 20dB
out of the noise. There is no point going 30 WPM if the
contact rate is one every 30 seconds or slower.
As an additional note I find almost never see a case when
anyone in the east or southeast hears a station that can't
be detected on some antenna here. I believe it is a matter
of the signal almost always being there in a wide area, but
not quite over the noise floor except at a few locations or
on a particular antenna array. Even six dB of signal to
noise sounds wonderful, and sometimes just one extra dB is
the difference between a QSO or not. The perception we have
is the signal goes from nothing at all to 589, but factually
almost all "jump for joy" 589's or 599's to DX are really
only a legitimate 549 or 559. My IC-751A assigns about 1 or
2 dB to each S unit at the lower end of the scale, and it
sounds like that is correct by ear. If we go by the most
commonly used 5dB per S unit or the less popular IARU region
2 (?) desired goal of 6dB, most receiver fail terribly below
mid-scale. The result is we have an ingrained perception
small changes in absolute signal level compared to noise are
very large changes....like flipping a switch. In actuality
it is just a few dB change.
73 Tom
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