6M CW
Locked
 
|
I understand how Jim and Ken feel. However, I find myself
on both sides of the fence. Sometimes I get antsy wanting to work a particular grid square, but other times I get into a longer exchange--maybe the other station is in a location of particular interest, or whatever. Of course, not many folks are that hungry for my grid square, but I suppose they may be hungry for the other person's grid square. Thing is, though, not everyone (me included) is knocking themselves out trying to grab "all" the grid squares. I save that approach for the contests usually. Different folks have different ways of enjoying the opening, and a little chit-chat may be how they do it. So, maybe we all just need to take a deep breath. Jim's absolutely right about the CW portion of the band. It's usually "all business" down there, and lots of fun too. Weak signals are much easier to grab, etc. My biggest complaint about the CW "portion" is that we seemed to be squeezed into a fairly narrow segment--50,090 to 50,100. I realize we can go further up or down, but most don't seem to do it. Also you start running into the beacons when you get lower, and when the band is good, there are a bunch of them coming in. Nevertheless, I do go down lower sometimes, but my QSO rate drops because others don't seem to be listening down further. Going up apparently "infringes" on a DX window for SSB. Anyway, I think we should spread out some, downward probably, when the band gets good like this, beacons or no beacons. That's probably heresy! Of course, I'd also like to hear a lot more folks try CW too! Dave W7AQK ----------------------------------------------------- Jim Brown wrote: On Mon, 5 Jul 2010 08:29:08 -0700 (PDT), Ken McGuire wrote: >I was frustrated at how slow the chats were on SSB (FM was >even worse) - >it seemed like they were wasting a perfectly good band >opening ragchewing Yep. Same here. Often, an opening on any given path may be there only long enough to exchange the grid and report. It's quite frustrating to wait to call a station that was S9, then S7, then S5, then S3, then fumes, while the time is filled with innanity. >When I turned down to the CW portion of the band, it almost >sounded like >a CW contest weekend. Yes. I've gotten to the point that I spend most of my 6M efforts on CW, only tuning up to the SSB portion of the band when nothing is happening on CW. And thanks in part to the proliferation of K3s, there is a lot more CW activity than there was only 5 years ago. 73, Jim K9YC ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html |
|
|
On Mon, 5 Jul 2010 11:26:40 -0700, David Yarnes wrote:
> However, I find myself >on both sides of the fence. Sometimes I get antsy wanting >to work a particular grid square, but other times I get into >a longer exchange First, there's no fence. Do what you wanna. :) But do what makes sense in the context of conditions. When 6M is open, conditions can be WILDLY variable, and ragchewing with a station who might not be there in 30 seconds is a pretty dumb idea. If you want to rag chew, do it with someone who is NOT subject to rapid fading, or on a band that is better suited to it. Second, there are MANY ways to enjoy ham radio. Some of my ham friends only enjoy building stations, or writing software, or building equipment, or fixing equipment, or teaching new hams. Others enjoy DXing, or collecting counties, or states, or whatever. Others enjoy contesting. Or rag chewing. One thing that turns me on is seeing my station working well in challenging situations, like 160M DX, and 6M grids. I like contesting for the same reason. Different strokes for different folks. Do what YOU wanna, but don't put down those who wanna do something different, and whatever side of the hobby you pursue, be a good neighbor! 73, Jim K9YC ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html |
|
|
In reply to this post by w7aqk
Comparing 6m to 17m is not very fair. My impression of 17m is its an
extension of 20m in nature and use. Some regard 6m is our lowest VHF band; others as the highest HF band. IMO it is neither. I find line-of-sight propagation quite inferior to 2m and even 70cm. As a band with ionospheric effects they are so rare that it hardly qualifies as a propagation mode (Of course you would have to withstand 355 days of no propagation to the ten or less that we get up here in Alaska to appreciate my comment). So ... when the band opens, "everyone" wants to work DX, and that is "me". So I get a back-to-back string of QSO's from 20-30 stations in CA. I worked CA on the first contact so after the band closes, I have worked one state. Or 35 JA stations call; same result one country worked. Would I enjoy exchanging a few more items other than call, name, RST and grid? Not going to happen because I am DX. Rag chews on 6m are with fellow Alaskans over a 30-mile radius when the band is closed. So six meters is - short and fast! If you are looking for a rag chew go down in freq to HF or up to 2m. If you want 24-hour DX, don't expect it on 6m. 6m is days of boredom interrupted by minutes chaos. It is what it is. And that is why we love it - and hate it. Oh, well I usually don't have to wait for a station to call me - so that is something. 73, Ed - KL7UW, WD2XSH/45 ====================================== BP40IQ 500 KHz - 10-GHz www.kl7uw.com EME: 144-600w, 432-100w, 1296-60w, 3400-fall 2010 DUBUS Magazine USA Rep [hidden email] ====================================== ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html |
«
Return to [HAM]
|
1 view|%1 views
| Free forum by Nabble | Edit this page |