195 q's total, 70 cw, 125 ssb
FT1000 cranked down to 5 watts per Autek WM1 peak pwr meter.
3 el tribander (Hygain TH3) at 40 feet.
MFJ voice keyer, CT.
100 q's came during 1 hour and 9 min opening to East Coast
Sunday Afternoon.
A friend suggests the bursty openings were due to meteor
scatter since a big shower is due about now. That's
certainly what it sounded like.
First try on QRP, nice to cq without worrying about neighbors.
Big numbers from SA, guess we're not close enough to equator.
73, Ed
--
Ed Jensen, K5ED, El Paso, TX
>From Dick Dievendorff" <dieven@almaden.ibm.com Mon Dec 12 17:40:30 1994
From: Dick Dievendorff" <dieven@almaden.ibm.com (Dick Dievendorff)
Subject: Single op's w/o packet?
References: <9412121501.AA28046@firefly.prairienet.org>
Message-ID: <9412120940.ZM17745@penguin.almaden.ibm.com>
Re: KF9PL's question about whether serious singl ops REALLY run without packet:
I for one, have always disconnected from the packetcluster system, turned off
the two meter rig, and not taken spots from the packet cluster system or local
FM repeater if I'm going to enter single op unassisted.
Here's why:
1) It would be dishonest. I don't think I'd enjoy benefiting by cheating.
Once one starts down that path it would be difficult to really enjoy "winning"
if "winning" doesn't mean anything.
2) The contest community is a relatively small one. People remember for years.
3) If I'm caught cheating, I get DQ'd. If I get DQ'd over and over again,
pretty soon I can't get a log even considered by the committee. And it isn't
like there are lots of other contest committees that I can send my log into if
I'm in the penalty box.
I talked with Bill Kennamer of the ARRL DXCC desk about what happens to people
caught cheating with DXCC: Their existing credits are deleted, they can't
submit again for a number of years, and then they get to start all over with
QSOs made only after the "penalty box" time. This is in addition to whatever
publicity occurs for a cheater. I for one think that would be pretty
devastating.
4) My buddies can tell if I'm connected by SH/STA or SH/C. And some of the
guys REMEMBER who was connected a year later when the scores come out.
There are ways to "snoop" packet cluster links without being connected, but see
the next point.
5) I'm aware of a situation where the son of a packetcluster sysop did quite
well in a contest, and it was thought by someone that the son might have
benefited from the spots run through his Dad's cluster. So a request for
investigation was filed, and someone went through the record of the spots and
compared them with the kid's log. There were no correlations. I'm aware this
can be done, If I was secretly connected, perhaps some goody would come up
that I just couldn't pass up. And if someone correlated the log with the
packetcluster spot log, I'd be caught.
6) Use of packet isn't always good for your single op score. In many contests,
you're much better off going for rate. Chasing spots on PacketCluster is not
a productive use of your time. I speak from experience in CQ WW. I was
single-assisted because I was hunting for band-mode combinations for my 5BDXCC.
Other ops were making high-point QSOs while I sat in pileups. This was fairly
early in my contesting career, and I learned well from it.
7) Single-Assisted can be a fun category, particularly for the casual
participant. You maximize the nifty DXCC counters for the time you spend. But
just next to that huge pileup brought on by the packetcluster spot is a DXCC
counter that is perhaps just as valuable, as yet unspotted, and it's easy to
get stuck in the wrong pileup. There's no substitute for tuning around and
listening for yourself. Then spot it for your club buddies!
73 de Dick, AA6MC, G0MFO, formerly GB0WPX and GB5CW
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