I did not realize that there were very many hams who would never send a CQ. They definitely fall into the very odd category. I recall an article in one of the ham magazines a few years (probably was actually decades ago), where the ham would park his rig on just about any quiet frequency in a band that was open and wait and typically, sooner or later ... usually sooner ... someone would call CQ within his passband.
One of the curious things is that a given frequency seems most busy about the time you need a clear frequency for a sked. My wife and I use 75 meters when she is outside of the local repeater. Which is not that far due to our difficult terrain here in the Driftless Area of Wisconsin. Even though 75 SSB phone is difficult to do mobile to base, it is one of the only choices we have other than perhaps VHF SSB. We have tried 10 meters and gotten out better than the repeater. And that was to a compromise antenna (the Bugcatcher with the coil jumpered across and force fed with the tuner. I wish there was a low cost way to do NVIS from a mobile, but the only one I have seen is huge in both size and cost:( Every time we would try to set up a sked frequency, sure enough someone would be on a "dead" band during the daytime on 75 meters. Normally, I think of 75 as only having a few regional nets and not much else during the day. Because of the insane phone expansion of 75 meters here in the U.S., it prompted my wife to study for and pass her Extra Class license and now both of us can work each other in the 3600-3700 Extra and 3700-3800 Advanced class sub bands! It is still hard for me to accept that we are operating phone in the the area where CW nets, automatic digital stations, Novices, etc. use to be. But there have been some mostly clear frequencies down there. When it comes to 30 meters, my rule of thumb is that if I don't seem to hear anything in my digital area of (10.138 - 10145) I then tune to the CW portion and see if there are any stations, even weak ones, also check to see if the commercial?/government? digital station is on, or check to see if the automatic Pactor or Packet stations are on higher up. That pretty well tells you if the band is open. 73, Rick, KV9U Danny Douglas wrote: > I am always amazed at the people who say "I never call CQ" My first > question is alway"WHY?". It takes two to tango! > Time and again, I have listened to 10 meters and heard absolutely nothing. > A couple of CQs often brings a few out of the woodwork. One of my MACROS on > WinWarbler is an automatic CQ, and it does get used- a lot lduring these > doldrums. > > Danny Douglas > N7DC > ex WN5QMX ET2US WA5UKR ET3USA > SV0WPP VS6DD N7DC/YV5 G5CTB > All 2 years or more (except Novice) > Pls QSL direct, buro, or LOTW preferred, > I Do not use, but as a courtesy do upload to eQSL for > those who do. > > > ------------------------------------ > > Announce your digital presence via our Interactive Sked Page at > http://www.obriensweb.com/sked > > Check our other Yahoo Groups.... > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dxlist/ > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/contesting > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > >
