Bruce Herrick wrote:
> I hate to take a defeatist attitude, but I don't think we can do much
> about the congestion on .200. We've been debating this issue for years,
> and it has become obvious that no one really cares - they will always go
> where the Qs are. It isn't bad here along the Front Range of Colorado,
> as there isn't enough activity to really cause problems. My biggest
> gripe out here is that after some of the locals work everyone, they will
> sit and ragchew - on .200, of course. Arrgh!
>
> Bruce WW1M
Guilty as charged. You can beat me with a Wouff Hong if you like.
We don't do it for long, unless you consider a couple of minutes maximum
"long"... and if so, you need less coffee. :-)
The key in your comment is "it isn't bad here".
If it was, we'd move off and around more, but ... but really, there were
only about 10 people maximum at a time listening on or around .200 out
here last year. This doesn't even come close to comparison with what's
going on back East or in the midwest, even.
At least one rover had set up to call one fixed station off of .200 --
and it was obvious he'd call that station first (fine with us... no
whining about "captive rovers" out here -- we're not whiners as much as
our some on the list), and he worked everyone if we all showed up on the
frequency he was using.
Worked fine, but we noticed after a while that he gave up on that and
just showed up on .200 where he knew his return from another grid would
create a small flurry of activity up the bands, and then another hour or
so of nothing.
We love the rovers and are glad they're out there, and will do whatever
they want us to do to work 'em. They're the multis that count around
here. After the flurry of fixed stations who always show up have worked
each other, and have the usual beginning of contest gang-bang, the
handful of rovers wandering the plains of Colorado, Nebraska, maybe
Wyoming and Kansas... are the only thing left to work if 6m isn't open.
Ragchewing on 2m late in the contest out here after all the serious
contesters are done working everyone also REGULARLY brings out people
who forgot the contest was going on, or highlights band openings that no
one's expecting.
It's a "technique" out here in no-where land, not a "problem".
No one out here holds the frequency in any way if a new callsign is
heard... we all bail off the conversation and work the newbie...
And if we all start working them, everyone else knows they're there
too... we noticed a lot of people tail-ending on us last year, when we
were away from .200 and other calling frequencies, and we didn't mind --
we don't "run" a frequency like some back East and overpower the
tail-enders... that's just rude.
That's also totally against the spirit of things, but probably somewhat
more necessary where there's more population density.
Keeping some activity going the whole weekend on .200 is also important
out here for catching those who monitor it but forgot what weekend it
is. They walk into the shack and "oh! the contest!"... and they dive in.
When you know everyone who's going to show up in a particular area by
first name... there really isn't much worry that someone will "hog" .200!
Was there ever a time you truly missed working someone here in the Front
Range last year Bruce, because of a couple minute conversation? I
really doubt it.
The longest conversations I heard were late Saturday afternoon when the
tropo opened to the Grand Junction station that anyone in the Denver and
Front Range area could hear, and we all know him... people passed around
their "hello's" to him... 'cause we don't hear him very often.
When rovers popped up, people did shut up. Well, we do anyway... we'd
rather work the rover!
When the 6m Aurora started Sunday, everyone went "back to work" and
spread out again... hunt and pecking through the noise... (we had S9+
noise directly north of us -- man that SUCKS for Aurora!!)
But in-between... there's just a lot of "dead time" out here in the wide
open West. We catch up on what folks have done to their stations, how
people are feeling, ya know... have a community.
Also, two or three of the bigger stations out here tend to keep the
voice CQ calls going -- if you listen all weekend, you'll hear it...
we'd do it for a while, then Dave would do it, then Wayne... it'd pass
around.
No need for piles of us calling CQ when 6m is dead and the rovers have
gone to sleep.
We fiddled for a while Saturday night trying to get our WSJT stuff up
and running, but had a few snags because we were on the "wrong" radio --
one of our rigs went 20dB deaf at the start of the contest.
So we were stuck trying to jury-rig a harness to go to the PC and
another one to test to another PC locally... it wasn't going so well...
during that time, someone else was calling and calling on .200 and there
was a roundtable ragchew going on on 6m on the calling frequency, and
every once in a while someone would make a UHF call or we'd reach over
to the other operating position and do a run from 222 up through 1.2G
while swinging the beams around... and hear... nothing.
The usual "Saturday night 10G bunch" is kinda fun too... most of us seem
to fiddle the most with 10G on Saturday evening when all the other stuff
has died down, usually just before sundown.
It seems to have become an event, although no one planned it that way --
everyone just seems to start pointing dishes and tuning around the
beacon around 4-6 PM.
Of course, we're willing to shoot 10G anytime, and we've certainly found
a few folks willing to jump from 1.2G on up there... during the day...
but not often.
At the multi-ops stations, I've noticed if 6m stays open, one op will
keep that station going, listen for conditions opening up on 2m with the
other ear, and the rest of the ops will head outside to play on 10G.
It's pretty mellow out here... although, this year promises to be busier
than last -- there's a lot of folks showing up on the 2m SSB nets
lately! Now if they'd all come out for June...!
The "all-band all-mode rig" population explosion, and talking up SSB
operation on the local Front Range repeaters for two years is starting
to pay off! For ALL of us!
(My dad's a new ham and he already has vertical and horizontal beams
with rotors up for 2m, 70cm, and a loop for 6m! Now to get him to join
us on the air in June!)
Nate WY0X
(W0KVA Multi-Multi)
(Who's also hoping to find some time to put a rover together before
June... we need more people ROVING out here!!! Thanks for being there
Bruce!!!!)
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