Well said Joe,
I enjoy the thrill and challenge of just working 160 much less getting my
drawls in a wad over it. :-)
I don't have the real-estate to run Beverages, EWEs, or other such RX antennas.
I have a 125' Inverted L, three radials, and a whole lot of enjoyment.
I hope contesting or hamming in general never leads me down that path where I
can't just have fun with the hobby.
73
Dan, N8IE
---- Joe Wilkowski <dxradio@k8fc.com> wrote:
> You guys are awful hard on the folks who were off frequency, could not
> hear , operating in the "prescribed DX window" etc. Everyone needs to
> step back and consider the challenges that the 160 meter band poses. It
> has what, 50 kHz of usable contest space (not usable band space) with
> excursions to either end difficult given the antenna requirements. The
> band is inherently noisy virtually all the time and subject to the
> wondrous and extensive vagaries of mother nature. Many people only
> operate the band during the contests providing the fodder for most of
> the qso hungry cq machines. Lastly, technology certainly has changed
> the face of the hobby. In many respects, your super duper "I can work
> you less than 1 millisecond after you opened up" spotting network, and
> the "my rig can hear less than 2 Hz from your transmit frequency" are
> really double edged swords. They can cause proportionally as many
> difficulties as benefits. It is because of all the above and many more
> realities that these complaints originate from. In my heart of hearts
> I still want to think that very few people "intentionally" set out to
> anger their fellow high tech hams who have a leg up and a bank account
> to match it during a 160 meter contest. It is, after all, the
> 'gentlemen s band'.
>
> By the way Art, I was not singling you out with my comments, I just
> happened to pick your post to respond to. One additional comment, most
> 160 "bandaholics" have separate receive antennas which usually provide a
> high RDF (directivity) with pretty decent front to back ratios. These
> antennas are being used on a daily basis to hear weak dx stations and
> are not well suited for the occasional domestic free-for-all contests.
> If he does not come back to your 2000 watt ERP signal it is probably
> because he is not listening in your direction.
>
> Happy Holidays to all.
>
> Joe K8FC
>
> On 12/5/2011 12:09 AM, k6xt wrote:
> > Same boat here. Many callers up to a half kc off freq. Whether I worked
> > them or my compatriot CQer nearby is sometimes a guess.
> >
> > The directional rx antennas were sometimes a pain, sometimes the
> > solution. I often found myself listening on the tx vertical just to
> > eliminate the directivity issue into USA...but then the issue is missing
> > a weak one as others noted.
> >
> > No perfect solution.
> >
> > BTW listening in the 30-35 segment was frustrating. What DX was there
> > had competition from US CQrs who didn't read the contest rules page, and
> > from a host of packet spot aficionados who couldn't hear their neighbors
> > much less the DX.
> >
> _______________________________________________
> UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
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UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
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