Recently I have experienced some monster pileups which have resulted in
the DX station hardly working a station a minute, and eventually resulted
in the DX station getting frustrated and going away.
We have all talked about the things the DX station can do to help the
situation, mainly by working split, but what about the hugh pileups?
I think they seem bigger than they used to. This morning on 40 meters,
the band was pretty quiet until a 9K2 showed up. Then all these stations
came out of the woodwork and pounced on him. I assume that he was announced
on packet and half the west coast heard their computer beep, grabbed their
coffee and morning paper and turned on the radio.
I think it is a reasonable conclusion that packet radio has increased the
size of pileups on rare DX stations significantly. I also think that it
has reduced the effort required to obtain any of the DX awards thereby
reducing the prestige of getting one.
I would like to see the sponsers of DX awards recognize the difference
between a single op and a assisted single op just like we do in contests
and perserve the prestige of their awards. It might also help discourage
the use of packet spotting nets which might help reduce the size of the
pileups. This might even result in people having to copy the DX stations
callsign again, instead of just looking at their computer screen.
The other day, I heard a friend calling in a high pileup and with the
disorder of the pileup, I could not hear the DX stations call. I later
asked him who he was calling and he told me the only reason he knew who
he was calling was because of packet radio. This is sad.
I know most of you think a DX station should sign his call every QSO.
I think the DX station might be able to get away with signing his call
every 30 seconds or so without trying the patience of too many of you.
This gives him a tool to control the number of stations calling IF
people do not call before they know the callsign (this is sinful in
my book) and there are no packet spotting nets.
In summary, I think the packet spotting net has cheapened the DX awards
as they are presently structured, and this will eventually make them
less interesting to everyone. Also, I think it promotes poor operating
habits since people assume that the DX stations call is what is printed
on their CRT, and that it makes many pileups too big to me managed by
the average DX operator.
It is really frustrating to sit there listening to a pileup out of
control and the only way I can find out who the station is, is to
turn on the two meter rig.
Well, that should generate some flames!! Fire away!!
Larry "TREE" Tyree N6TR _. _.... _ ._. _.._. __...
islabs!ateq!larryt@sequent.com
work (503) 526-7210 home (503) 658-6012 fax (503) 526-7202
My views are not those of General Motors, IBM, HP or most other sane people.
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