On 2/19/2024 1:51 PM, Wes Stewart via Topband wrote:
Another particularly distasteful thing about FT8 is that the DX can set filters to exclude certain callers based on signal strength, distance, country, etc. and the callers never know it. I know there will be vehement denial of this but I know it happens.
Still happens on CW, too. Last night, I wasted almost three hours calling and calling 8R7X on 80m, the last two hours after he'd gotten as strong as S7 to S9 on my meter. If he was only running 1000W, and I, too, was running 1000W, you'd think he should have at least heard SOMETHING. If he was only running 500 watts (as I think he was) and I'm running a KW, he almost certainly would have heard me calling. The pileup of W/K/VEs started out very large but gradually died down as they peeled off one by one to get some sleep before a Monday morning. This op was enamelled with working Europeans before their sunrise (especially UAs), and would only respond to a W/K/VE once in about 10 QSOs, and then it seemed usually to "pals" in the PVRC (I'm also a former PVRCer). Once the grayline crossed England, he quit suddenly, went away, and hey el presto... no more opportunity to work 8R7X on 80m. Yes, barring evidence to the contrary, I'm going to blatantly accuse last night's 8R7X 80m operator of biased operating; it could not have been more obvious. Steve, K0XP _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector