It's a wrap!

[W3MIV]

Interesting phenomenon. Heard some of the worst audio I have ever encountered, and that includes a couple of trips back and forth across the nation with a CB.

Seems a lot of folks twist the mic gain to max, probably willing to put a pair of pliers on it to try to get a little more splatter, then pump it into an amplifier at full throttle. Not only splatters, but makes it sometimes near impossible to understand on the same frequency. Amazing!

Late Saturday afternoon, I was in the midst of a pileup around 14.302 or thereabouts, making no particular headway, when an incredulous voice asked what was going on. Did we not know, he asked, that the Maritime Mobile Net was about to start, and why didn't everyone pack up and move so that they could continue without the splatter?

This guy was no youngster, judging from the voice, and he had that air of authority so often encountered when a netster finds others on "his" frequency. He fumed and fussed for several more seconds, then went away. In a few moments, a recording of the pileup suddenly appeared, repeating the same brief dialogue over and over at max power.

I left the pileup and went down to 14.300 to hear what was up, noting that the splatter seemed to lessen greatly. In a few moments, one of the netsters asked if they could perhaps ask the contesters to move. Then the same voice I had heard harummphing on .302 announced that "he had taken care of it."

So much for the ways of the OF's on the air.

Overall, I thought the contest fun, but I couldn't hope to compete on any real basis. Made lots of new contacts, expanding my personal country list to about eighty, and added many islands. Main thing I learned is that serious contesting is for those with the wherewital, both financial and psychological, to butt the head into the wall again and again and again and again and again...

you get the picture.

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[ka1kjz]

Hurrah! Now I can use my radio again.

Now we wonder why the FCC calls us a "routine and hobby" service.

[W9DDK]

I know people are going to complain about the contest this past weekend but the bands were sure being utilized. This being my first CQWW, I made some contacts and not being serious about this, it sure was a blast. Can't wait for next year.... Now to see how the CQWW CW context is later in November....

[WD8OQX]

Quote[/b] ]
W3MIV
Seems a lot of folks twist the mic gain to max, probably willing to put a pair of pliers on it to try to get a little more splatter, then pump it into an amplifier at full throttle. Not only splatters, but makes it sometimes near impossible to understand on the same frequency. Amazing!



Yeah, I heard about the same thing on 20M #- about near twice the bandwidth that it should have been.

But at least the bands were "humming" - we need to get (& in some cases keep) some activity on them so no-one takes them from us with ease, anyway.

[n5tjd]

I worked only 8 countries. 4 of which were new ones for me. It was my first CQWW contest and I learned a lot. Maybe when it rolls around again I'll have more antennas and have more bands at my disposal.

I find it amazing that 20m was so hopping busy. Open to everywhere, and now there isn't a soul to be heard. Just the dull hiss of background noise. I guess all the serious contesters have finally gone to bed.

[AC4BB]

Thank God that bunch is gone until next year. It'll give them more time though to figure out how to get their stations sounding even more like CB'ers. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

[W3MIV]

The natural urge among contesters to be super-competitive is what impels them to the worst audio imaginable. Makes you wonder about the wisdom of the speech compressor.

I ran mine, but I left it at the "default" setting on the IC746Pro. I also used the "monitor" function, but did not find that feature helpful at all.

It is both natural and understandable that someone would run the compressor during a contest, and even that this individual would crank it to get the most out of it and, not being able to hear how really bad the audio is, not be aware of how ridiculous it is to leave it that way. Seems to me, lots of the confusion about calls and reports (don't you just love "59" repeated seven or eight times!) would be lessened by better audio. DUH!

What is, however, even worse are those benighted bozos who run the compressor all the time, even when just acting like jerks on 75m or taking on the endless nets about this mornings dewpoint and barometer readings.

Still in all, it WAS fun and I can see how it could become addictive and lead to massive investments in gear and antenna farms.

One other note of interest, at least to me, was that I encountered several female contesters out there. That was a pleasant surprise. Hope they did well.

[ai4ep]

I did a lot of listening, did hear MY OWN CALL SIGN 3 seperate times ( wont say what bands ) so there were undoubtably a few bootleggers out there....

We hear how things are now...just imagine how much better it will be when the fcc opens up HF to folks who have no intention of learning a simple 5 wpm of morse code to keep them back from those HF frequencies. What a better world it shall be, thanks to our next president' Mr. Kerry.

What a glorious time it shall be !!

[n0xu]

I didn't participate in earnest in the contest, but while driving around on errands this weekend I tuned around and handed out some contacts.

The highlight for me was working 9A1P on 15 meters 100w mobile. Tuned it, worked it and logged it inside of 20 seconds, while at a stop light. Just happened to stumble across it...

Drew NØXU

[K3UD]

I spent about 5 hours with it, had 78 contacts, 19 zones and never did figure out how many countries.

10 and 15 meters were awesome but the short skip on 20 proved to be somewhat aggravating as the stateside stuff often buried the DX.

I agree that some of the signals were unintelligible.

Did pretty well on 40 working 10 zones with 100 Watts and my 1/2 sloper. The phone ops below 7.150 all but wiped out the cw ops there.

73
George
K3UD

[WA3KYY]

Made about 100 contacts in casual operating. Two all time new countries and about a dozen new ones on SSB for all bands 80-10. The lousy audio from some big guns made understaning their callsign very difficult. Some even had AC buzz on their audio. Sheesh!

[K3STX]

I'm like Mike, a little over 100 QSOs and concentrated on 10 meters for 5BDXCC. Great band yet again!!!!!! It will be sad when our little 10 meter love-fest dies down, hopefully it will wait till AFTER the 10 meter contest. If I ever do a phone contest again (which I doubt), will have to get a real headset/mic (I used the little hand mic that came with this rig) and should get a 1.8 kc SSB filter.

paul

[W0LC]

I worked some nice DX tidbits, although nothing new, it was fun! I did encounter some real lids on the bands, N3RS, W3LPL to name a couple that would coninually call and call over the top of a DX station, as if that would make him stop and work them. What it did was slow the QSo rate down and tire the DX of putting up with the nonsense. In on instant, the DX stated he was QSYing due to LPL continually QRMing him.

That is sad to be sure. Big time contest stations that resort to forcing a QSO when it is clear the DX station doesn't want to work them that way.

I did hear some nice DX on though and oddly, not too many were answering them either.

[AG3Y]

If anybody has "AG3Y" in their logs, they can just erase that QSO right back out of there! I did not transmit ONCE this weekend except to see if I could be heard on MT63 over all of the foreign stations working SSB in the portion of the 20 meter band that is "CW and Digital only" to us users in the States!

I guess I don't understand contests, but it would seem to me that if a foreign station was beaming a signal into this region of the world and speaking in English, he would be transmitting somewhere where a U.S. station could reply to him. Oh yah, I forget, that is what "split operation" is all about. I just thought it was so one QSO could occupy TWO places on the band at the same time, and neither operator would have any idea who or how many other stations they were walking on top of ! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif

[K9STH]

AG3Y:

Remember that on 80 meters and 40 meters that many of the DX stations cannot operate on the frequencies where we have to operate phone. They are restricted to frequencies below our phone bands and where we are restricted to CW, etc.

Glen, K9STH

[K7JBQ]

Jim.

Split also makes for a much better rate than "simplex," as the DX doesn't have to wait for the din to die down to be heard.

73,
Bill

[AG3Y]

Oh, come on guys, I know all that, but it just seems that the old "listen first and see if the frequency is clear" is COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN during a contest! Always has been, always will be ! One reason you will never hear me in any contest except Field Day ( and then I just set up the stuff for the club and hardly operate on the air at all ! ) Different strokes for different folks ! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[kj5t]

Worked the contest for about 4 hours Sunday afternoon made 81 contacts and I am not sure how many zones.. somtimes like 11,310 points or somthing like that.. I enjoyed working the 10 and 15 meter DX, and I do look forward to next year..

Still trying to decide if I will work the November Sweepstakes or not..