Fellow Hams,
Many thanks for the guidelines and suggestions…. I will try and
experiment with some/all of those suggestions.
I had been running with AGC Off - but after having being deafened by
the POPs of several RU using Kw - I went back to AGC Slow - I never knew about
the limit setting for the AF Output !! (Time to read the manual again).
Likewise great info on the various Settings & Operating Modes.
Being a slightly ‘exotic call’, does mean in Contests your rarity
increases (I am sure that also works for US stations in different ITU Zones -
and a lesser extent CQ Zones) - so I 95% of the time have to “Run” a frequency.
Because I almost never do S&P, I do not use the cluster or any other spotting
utilities (skimmer, Reverse Beacon Network) - so I can enter the un-assisted
section (if there is one) - However should you operate in “Run” mode - then
you cal really tell when you have been spotted on the cluster systems - as the
increase in traffic is exponential. Often too much to cope with. I would
normally work a split - something laughable in contest mode.
Recently I think that the “smart contesters” are increasingly using the
Reverse Beacon Network (or their own skimmers) - with at least 3 stations
always calling me within 2 CQ's after QSY-ing. Interestingly a well known
German Dx contester - would always wait 10 minutes after I QSY-ed…. and the
general melee had calmed down. I do use the RBN network the day prior to the
contest - to try and get a feeling of how well my signals are getting out to
various parts of the world. Alas Asian/Africa seems to be a little lacking in
spotting stations - so it is rather a US/EU centric propogation exercise - but
interesting nevertheless.
Despite sending at 25 WPM - and I can happily receive at that, it often
seems that stations with 1.5KW of power, into some monstrous 4x4x4 12 Element
Array “farm” can only QRS to 32.5 wpm instead of their normal 33 wpm….
Fortunately I do not have to log some of my rather choice comments.
Many thanks for the most excellent suggestions - this list, as well as
the radios it supports continues to amaze and enthral me.
Regards
Tim - A45WG, Muscat. Sultanate of Oman.
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