As good as it gets...for now?

[Dave, G4AON]

On my simple wire doublet antenna (100' long, 30' at the apex) I was
hearing South America this morning and worked 3000 miles later in the
morning on PSK31 running 25 Watts to the doublet, so while conditions
aren't great they are far from flat. Ten Watts and a K2 are fine, the
only thing left is that antenna. I don't know what you expect in the way
of a reply Rod but antennas count for pretty much everything.

73 Dave, G4AON
K1 #1154, K2 # 1892, K3 #80
=============================


Set up here is QRP K2, and a Superantennas PW-1. Now before everybody
jumps on the PW-1--NO PW-1/ANY OTHER ANTENNA BASHING!!! I mean it!
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[N5GE]

On Mon, 31 Dec 2007 17:27:29 +0000, you wrote:

>On my simple wire doublet antenna (100' long, 30' at the apex) I was
>hearing South America this morning and worked 3000 miles later in the
>morning on PSK31 running 25 Watts to the doublet, so while conditions
>aren't great they are far from flat. Ten Watts and a K2 are fine, the
>only thing left is that antenna. I don't know what you expect in the way
>of a reply Rod but antennas count for pretty much everything.
>
>73 Dave, G4AON
>K1 #1154, K2 # 1892, K3 #80
>=============================

IMHO, Just as important as a good antenna is not relying on DX clusters to find
contacts for you.  Tune the bands (slowly) and look for those weak signal
stations.  They are there, and you can't always depend on the other guys to find
them for you.  Nobody else in the whole wide world can hear the signals you hear
at you QTH the same as you do.

Back before clusters we did a lot more QSX than TX, because we were doing a lot
of tuning to find stations to rag chew with.  That made QSOs more pleasurable
when we found them.  Good QSOs are still like good meals.  Rushing through
either, reduces the enjoyment.

Tom, N5GE - SWOT 3537 - Grid EM12jq

They that can give up essential liberty
to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety.

http://www.n5ge.com
http://www.eQSL.cc/Member.cfm?N5GE

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[Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy]

Tom Childers, N5GE, wrote:

>IMHO, Just as important as a good antenna is not relying on DX clusters to
>find
>contacts for you.  Tune the bands (slowly) and look for those weak signal
>stations.  They are there, and you can't always depend on the other guys to
>find
>them for you.  Nobody else in the whole wide world can hear the signals you
>hear
>at you QTH the same as you do.

>Back before clusters we did a lot more QSX than TX, because we were doing a
>lot
>of tuning to find stations to rag chew with.  That made QSOs more
>pleasurable
>when we found them.  Good QSOs are still like good meals.  Rushing through
>either, reduces the enjoyment.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

IMHO DX clusters have not only taken away many of the skills required to
work 'new ones', but they can make it very difficult to ragchew with a DX
station who would like to ragchew, as Tom says. It seems to me FWIW that
once a DX station is spotted a howling mob arrives on frequency, many of
whom cannot hear the DX station but keep calling anyway.

End of beef!

Happy New Year everyone!

73,
Geoff
GM4ESD

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[dave.wilburn]

Agreed.  Though I tend to do both.  I will spin around the bands while
watching the cluster.  My program gives me an indication of the folks
that use LOTW also.  That is a plus.  I am trying to get WAS and DXCC
all through LOTW.  

I find cluster's real handy as I am still working on improving my CW
skills, and when these folks are clipping along, I at least have an idea
on what the calls are that I am listening for.  

I did my first Stew Perry last weekend, and the concept exchanging grid
squares was killing me.  I would try to copy, listening before I tried
to make contact, to get all the info, and they would reply with the call
of the calling station, and the grid square of the running station.  Had
a hard time getting it down so I could catch it.  As the night went on,
I was focusing on the tail end of the calling station's call, and then
new what to listen for as a trigger to listen for the running station's
grid square.

There were thunderstorms in the SE, and lots of QRN here on 160.  I had
recently killed my DSP, so I was without its help.  It was much more
fatiguing that I had expected.  After the 60 contacts on the RAC,
running family errands and shopping, then 50 contacts on Stew Perry (the
longest was 3,145 kilometers) I was shot.
-  

David Wilburn
[hidden email]
K4DGW
K2 S/N 5982


On Mon, 2007-12-31 at 19:47 +0000, Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy wrote:

> Tom Childers, N5GE, wrote:
>
> >IMHO, Just as important as a good antenna is not relying on DX clusters to
> >find
> >contacts for you.  Tune the bands (slowly) and look for those weak signal
> >stations.  They are there, and you can't always depend on the other guys to
> >find
> >them for you.  Nobody else in the whole wide world can hear the signals you
> >hear
> >at you QTH the same as you do.
>
> >Back before clusters we did a lot more QSX than TX, because we were doing a
> >lot
> >of tuning to find stations to rag chew with.  That made QSOs more
> >pleasurable
> >when we found them.  Good QSOs are still like good meals.  Rushing through
> >either, reduces the enjoyment.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> IMHO DX clusters have not only taken away many of the skills required to
> work 'new ones', but they can make it very difficult to ragchew with a DX
> station who would like to ragchew, as Tom says. It seems to me FWIW that
> once a DX station is spotted a howling mob arrives on frequency, many of
> whom cannot hear the DX station but keep calling anyway.
>
> End of beef!
>
> Happy New Year everyone!
>
> 73,
> Geoff
> GM4ESD
>
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