IO5O splattering over 20kHz on the ARRL contest

[WA6MHZ]

I get EMOTIONAL in Pileups! Normally, I am as calm and quiet a person as you will ever meet. But given a Mic and a Kilowatt....... JEKKEL and HYDE!!!!

[KF5FEI]

Sorry OM, but you need to be a little more specific about the time & frequency that you monitored this.

Look at the screen capture. Both the frequency and time are on there.

[G0NIG]

Just to clarify a few points.

I'm the originator of the screen shot which was originally posted on a closed UK forum but has now found
its way onto here.

The software in use was HDSDR in conjunction with a PMSDR receiver and
EMU 0202 soundcard. The system has been calibrated using the Elecraft XG3 programmable test generator. The sampling rate of the input was 192KHz and the output was sampled at 96KHz.

They were not the strongest station here by any stretch of the imagination but they did take the prize for the
widest. I monitored them for about an hour or so and heard a few stations call in advising them that they were
causing severe splatter but their comments went without any form of acknowledgement.

I'm not adverse to those who choose to use power, I own a Heathkit SB200 and Icom IC-2KL, but with power
comes a lot of responsibility. To adopt Nigel Tuffnels (Spinal Tap) attitude and turn everything up to eleven doesn't
win friends and influence people.


Regards

Nidge (G0NIG)
IO93dv
Former RO of MV QE2 (GBTT)

[NY3V]

The only wide splatter station I heard here in SC on my indoor 20M vertical cobweb was a large Texas multi-Op contest station with extensive antenna farm and Linears.

[KF5FEI]

The only wide splatter station I heard here in SC on my indoor 20M vertical cobweb was a large Texas multi-Op contest station with extensive antenna farm and Linears.

Well, that rules me out. I hid on the WARC and digital domains where my low power would be heard.

[W6OGC]

No need to run high power or humongous antennas to have fun and make contacts, unless you just absolutely have to work everyone else in the contest. I worked everyone I called, running 100 watts; the stock 706MKIIG has no additional filters, and the antenna was a modest loop about 200' of wire hooked to the eaves of the house 20-30' up. I spent, ohhh, maybe half an hour each day on this.

Of course, I may not hear everyone that the big guns hear.

[N2ADV]

Just to clarify a few points.

I'm the originator of the screen shot which was originally posted on a closed UK forum but has now found
its way onto here.

The software in use was HDSDR in conjunction with a PMSDR receiver and
EMU 0202 soundcard. The system has been calibrated using the Elecraft XG3 programmable test generator. The sampling rate of the input was 192KHz and the output was sampled at 96KHz.

They were not the strongest station here by any stretch of the imagination but they did take the prize for the
widest. I monitored them for about an hour or so and heard a few stations call in advising them that they were
causing severe splatter but their comments went without any form of acknowledgement.

I'm not adverse to those who choose to use power, I own a Heathkit SB200 and Icom IC-2KL, but with power
comes a lot of responsibility. To adopt Nigel Tuffnels (Spinal Tap) attitude and turn everything up to eleven doesn't
win friends and influence people.


Regards

Nidge (G0NIG)
IO93dv
Former RO of MV QE2 (GBTT)

Very neat looking program

[N0AZZ]

Pat you need a voice Keyer save your voice for the phone.

[W3WN]

Sorry OM, but you need to be a little more specific about the time & frequency that you monitored this.
< snip >

Look at the screen capture. Both the frequency and time are on there.

You missed my point.

While I don't doubt at all what was monitored... for how long? Moments? Minutes? Hours? This band only? Other bands?

Was the station a Single Op effort? Multi Op? Single Transmitter, Two Transmitters, or Multi-Transmitter? Regardless of the entry class, how many transceivers were actually in use during the course of the weekend?

All we have to go on, here, is ONE screen shot of ONE moment. That gives no indication of how large a problem it was... or wasn't.

It could have been a malfunctioning piece of equipment that was swapped out for a backup. It could have been an inexperienced, or clueless, or careless op... or someone who simply didn't realize that a control had been bumped.

And for all we know, the people trying to tell the op about the problem may have been speaking to him (or her) in a language in which they weren't fluent. Someone who's English is not the greatest may have no problem with '59 500' or '59 PA', but may not comprehend (in the thick of things in the midst of the chaos of a contest effort on a crowded band in the heat of the moment) phrases like "you're overmodulating", "your mic gain is too high", "your speech compression is too far to the right!" and so forth.

I'm not making excuses for poor operating. But we simply don't know all of the circumstances. Demanding that the op be DQ'd because of this strikes me as more than a little draconian, based simply on the little bit of information presented.

As I said before... when I worked IO5O on 20, I heard no evidence of a wide signal. I don't recall what the op sounded like when I worked him on 75 early Sunday morning... it just didn't register after a hard evening's effort. I do recall that there were a few signals during the course of the afternoon & evening, on the upper bands, that were excessively wide and/or distorted. Who I couldn't tell you, I didn't make notes at the time (and most of the time you couldn't make it out anyway), I simply didn't work them.

I guess the real point is this: Why not contact the statiion control operator/licensee now, granted after the fact, give him the facts, and have him deal with the issue... and if he doesn't know what to do, reach out and help him. That strikes me as a little more productive and with more of a long term benefit than publicly blasting him on a public international web site, and requesting that people demand that the contest sponsor DQ him.

But maybe that's just me. I never was one much for a lynch mob. And I don't care to participate in one, with so little factual knowledge to go on.

[WA6MHZ]

Pat you need a voice Keyer save your voice for the phone.

I have a MFJ one. Will be wiring it up shortly. I SURE havalotta MFJ equipment in my shack for being a MFJ Critic!