At 05:43 PM 07/30/2006, nick cominos wrote:
After reading a variety of opinions I felt compelled to add to the
mix. While I have never been on the operating end of a DXpedition,
the mere idea of allowing the entire ham population to call
indiscriminately is atrocious.
I disagree. Opening it up wide gets the Big Guns out of the way a lot
faster. I'd say maybe target by continent, if anything, but not go by
numbers all that much.
Call area is one that I find to be the most rewarding for both the
DXpedition and those calling.
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Most recent example of this was last
Friday night with Swains. They were going by numbers but with the
band fading out, by the time they must have gotten around to 1 and 2
and 3, there was no more propagation to 1, 2 and 3. Conversely, they
spent a long time in the initial go-around on 6s and 7s, whereas 6
and 7 would continue to have props LONG after the east coast lost signal.
Going by numbers is probably better when dealing with a big European
pileup than a big American pileup just because the calls are so
intermixed there, much more so than here where I'd venture to say a
good sized number of operators are operating from the same area as is
their call (4's in 4-land, as opposed to a 2's living in 4-land).
I think a better way would be to start out with an understanding of
what circuits are open when/where and then target based on that data.
East coast, central NA, west coast, northern EU, southern EU, South
America, VK/ZL, Africa/Indian Ocean and JA. should, IMHO, be
specifically targeted in a major operation. (and I stress MAJOR in
this context).
Simply spreading out the pile up and using enormous spectrum is not
the answer.
Good operators should be able to open it wide up first and second day
over 10 to 15 kHz on SSB and maybe 5-10 on CW, max. I agree that
there's no need to listen over 40 kHz for SSB. I still remember the
40m CW op on Peter 1, just kept going up and up and up and up and up
and....Feh.
Best to let the guys who've put real money into their stations get
their Q's and get out of the way. The DX station works the edges then
wades into the middle and eventually starts working the little
pistols everywhere in the middle.
It is a cultural problem within the amateur community and not
exclusive to one continent or another. Those of you who understand
won't require further explanation.
A good public shaming and temporary NIL will stop some of that. Or to
avoid confrontation, just work the guy and don't log him. Enough DX
does that and Lid gets the message when all of a sudden he doesn't
get any QSLs from the 5 top DXpeditions he "worked." Maybe that's
what it takes for the message to sink in.
Then the height of impropriety, as is the case for KH8SI right now,
is breaking the pace of the pile up to talk with another station at
length. These matters should be handled on another preassigned
frequency with a Pilot station.
It's the DX's prerogative. Period. If they WANT to talk to their
pilot (or their best friend, or wife or club-mates or the man in the
moon) that's their business. Frankly, I just heard the exchange you
obviously did and I gleaned information from it. I think those QSOs
are very informative and give perspective of the operation to The
Deserving. It also is a way to get news of the inner-workings,
trials, tribulations, successes and disappointments of the operators
on the ground.
Gone are the days when simple equipment, simple antenna arrangements
and some "stick to it" allowed a new ham to work plenty of DX and
didn't require mega bucks.
It does NOT require megabucks today. Balderdash. 100W, a modest wire,
patience, skill and a few handfuls of sunspots are all that's needed
to get one's country count well into the mid-upper 200s. I came in in
2001 with a TS-820 and a wire at 35'. By the time I moved to my
present QTH last fall I was up beyond 250 (with maybe 10 or 15 of
those from a nice club station with a multiband yagi). Most of those
were made with that wire and increasingly-better transceivers (TS-570
for 4 years, then a Mark V, then a 600W amp on top of it).
A new DXer getting in today with a modest station would need a simple
rig (TS-570 is an excellent starter rig, used for under $650 if you
shop around), a modest antenna -- a few dollars worth of wire if you
can get it high enough or scrounge around and be able to put up a
small vertical or yagi if you can, maybe an AL-811 used for about
$400 and you'll work pretty well anything you can hear if you have
patience and learn the skillz needed. A broadband connection to a DX
cluster sure helps, too!
I worked enough to earn my 5-Band DXCC from the old QTH in 3 years
and 7 months, and it took me 8 months to get my first DXCC
certificate. So Bravo Seirra to needing a mega-station to get a high
country count. Propagation sucks on the upper bands for the moment,
yes. If I were getting into DXing now, it would probably take me a
little longer to get a high country count, but once cycle 24 kicks
into high gear in a few years, any newcomers will have a pretty easy
time of it.
Cheers,
Peter,
W2IRT
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