I thought I would share a few thoughts about making QSOs with deep QSB. I
find these techniques work well for me. They might not be everyone's cup
of tea however.
The QSO process kind of goes through "states" similar to an EME QSO:
1. Someone calls CQ.
2. Someone answers the CQ
3. The CQer responds with the callsign of the station calling and sends a
report.
4. The "Answerer" acknowledges receipt of the report and sends a report
back.
5. The CQer acknowledges receiving the report and ends the QSO.
6. The "Answerer" might acknowledge the completion of the QSO (this is
"gravy").
If you hear no response to your last transmission - you should assume the
QSO has not moved forward to the next state. For example, if you respond
to a station who called you - and you don't hear them come back to you -
you should repeat your action again. The QSB might have dipped and they
might not have heard you come back at all.
For example:
SM5EDX: CQ DX CQ DX SM5EDX SM5EDX
N6TR: N6TR N6TR
SM5EDX: N6TR N6TR 559 559 BK
..... (SM5EDX hears nothing)
The best thing for SM5EDX to do at this point is to wait 5 seconds or so
and then repeat "N6TR N6TR 559 559 BK"
Also - a subtle point. If N6TR heard SM5EDX come back - but faded out
before hearing his RST, the best thing N6TR could do is just QRX and wait
for a repeat. If N6TR decides to send something like "SM5EDX 559 559 PSE
RST AGAIN?" - SM5EDX might hear the RST being sent - which tells him that
the QSO has moved forward - and totally missed the "PSE RST AGAIN" due to
QSB. N6TR should not send an RST until he has received the RST from
SM5EDX.
Once N6TR has heard the RST - he then will keep repeating the RST back to
SM5EDX until he hears SM5EDX and acknowledge it (this can easily be done by
sending "QSL" or "73" a few times. N6TR can then respond with 73 and the
QSO can end with both parties feeling good about the result.
Another point - at the start of the QSO - if you hear a partial callsign -
it is tempting to send the partial callsign and then perhaps an RST. This
will confuse the situation. It is best not to send an RST until you are
sure you have the callsign right. You can have the person calling you
repeat the callsign either by sending "?", or just call another CQ, or in
some cases, just wait and the person will repeat their callsign.
One of the worst situations to try and avoid is only having a partial
callsign, then sending an RST and the other station doesn't understand that
you need their call sign again. If you hold off sending the RST - they
will keep sending their callsign for you.
I call it QSB surfing. The band changes every few seconds.
Tree N6TR/7
Manning, OR
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