Re: Topband: 150 MESSAGES
"...If you don't like the topic and don't like the delete key, you can always unsubscribe ..." How does one do that ? I can't find out how to unsubscribe. 73 - Mort, G2JL _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: SAignal reporting
A contest program that interfaces with the rig could read AGC and be calibrated to give adequate signal-strength readings, maybe not quite equal to a laboratory field-strength meter but better than auto-5NN. Few things are more ludicrous than being given 5NN & then asked for four or five repeats, as happens to us peasants with restricted antennas. 73 - Mort, G2JL _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: Stew Beef
"...some folks cried fowl" So, did he chicken out ? 73 - Mort, G2JL _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: Stew Beef
"...The days of "honest reports" in a contest? I am 63 years old, operated my first contest when I was 18 and I don't remember those days. You found out how well your station "got out" by how long you waited in the pileups and how much of the time you could call CQ. ..." Well, when I retired at 60, because the employer decided that at this age, brain-rot sets in, I spent three months of new-found 'spare' time typing my logs for the last 40 years. Genuine RST seemed to appear in contests until the mid 70s. Now, stuck with a DOS log, too old for exporting, I blench at the thought of typing 62 years'-worth, especially as I've made more QSOs since retiring than before. When I win the lottery [my XYL believes in The Power of Positive Thinking; I believe in Sod's Law] yes, when, I shall employ a typist who might be able to do things even a modern Window$ log-prog can't, too. I shall also employ tramps [hobos] to march the streets with sandwich-boards proclaiming "Genuine RST or Nothing". 73 - Mort, G2JL _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: Stew's Beef
GE & HNY 1 This might be relevant; read on ! I work one or two in these 5NN shenanigans known as 'Contests', because I've found somebody I want to work for other reasons. I won't bore U with those, but if U R curious, www.cat-houses.com might help. On getting a desperate E-mail form someone who'd called me, during my annual 6-months' stay on a remote Greek island in the Dodecanese (SV5) I learned something. He needed me to make so many countries (bad, non-PC word; I should say 'Entities') in some foul contest he'd been in. He stood fair to win his section, but the adjudicators, in their wisdom, deemed the QSO invalid because I was the only, sole, unique reference to "SV5/G2JL" in all the logs, THEREFORE, he was a liar. This annoyed me so much, I both E-mailed & snail-mailed those adjudicators, but he lost his claim. So, the moral of this is: "submit UR logs". Unfortunately, though I am literate in English English, and manual telegraphy, I am as a four-month-old brat in computing & still am stuck with my old DOS logger. I can't face typing 60+ years' work into a modern program that takes a day to load in Window$, but you fellows can export an ADIF log with ease, even for one QSO. Either that, or don't make contest QSOs. 73 - Mort, G2JL _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: SPTBDC Scheduling
*Flogging a dead horse* (alternatively *beating a dead horse*, or *beating a dead dog* in some parts of the Anglophone <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-speaking_world> world) is an idiom <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiom> that means a particular request or line of conversation is already foreclosed or otherwise resolved, and any attempt to continue it is futile; or that to continue in any endeavour (physical, mental, etc.) is a waste of time as the outcome is already decided. Yes ! That sums up Top Band for me, in a nutshell; On the air 61 years, and though I have 200 countries on 8 bands, I'll never live to get 100 on 1.8 with a low "stealth" antenna & immense noise-levels. I even need VK / ZL for WAC. But then, every time I call CQ I get told this is MY frequency. Nevertheless, I have PY and several Ws, who must have liquid-helium cooled beverages. But I prefer English unpasteurised warmish beer... 73 - Mort, G2JL _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: re topband QRP
"How else do I let you out there know I'm a QRP station." You don't; it's your choice, or it's forced on U, as many of us have high noise, rabidly anti-ham councils, vandalistic neighbours and so on. There are poor, inept, operators and have little time but we don't expect others to make special allowances for us. That raises an interesting point; what ARE we expected to do ? It's like those ludicrous annoying "Baby on board" signs; So what ? It is known what causes it; it's not my fault. One is reminded of the offensively patronising farewell: "Take care". One is tempted to answer, "Well, I wasn't going to, but since you order it..." 73 - Mort, G2JL _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: ARRL 160CW Contest QRP Portable Op
I agree wholeheartedly; It sticks in my craw when I hear oafs signing "/QRP" and expecting others to take pity & do their work for them, with liquid-helium-cooled stacked rhombics & so on. Nobody returns to me when I sign "G2JL / PPA" (pretty poor antenna). I reckon anyone using QRP for reasons other than RFI or penury is a Masochist. As a Sadist, I ought to be kind to Masochists, but I have my limits, like when my blood boils. QAC - Mort, G2JL _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: 160m WAS
And U did it without a call-sign ? 73 - Mort, G2JL _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: QRP
Well, IMO the problem with QRP QSO is definitely the increase in man-made noise. We had a 10 Watt DC input to "the valve or valve energising the aerial" or as we must now say, since American has displaced English, to "the tube or tubes energising the antenna". Even so, enthusiasts in good locations with space for an effective TX antenna achieved DXCC even observing that restriction. Beverages (except for tranquillising the operator) were seldom needed or used. Nowadays, anyone using QRP in a spacious location is either a Masochist, or doomed to disappointment. It is yet another aspect of inflation. In my time, a pint (568 ml) of beer in a pub has risen by a factor of 26... 73 - Mort, G2JL _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
