G'day all and a very merry Christmas
It has been interesting reading the comments about DX stations on 160m generally not working split. I thought having the perspective from someone who is generally perceived as 'DX'. One of the main reasons I don't usually need to work split is that topbanders are such good CW operators! In general, people calling me know to use spread out a bit in my receiver passband. Like most I generally use 400Hz CW filtering and calling about 200Hz away from the main 'wolf pack' is a good way of grabbing my attention as I scan the pack using the RIT. Calling on the exact same frequency as another caller is not a good idea. Sending your call twice is always a good idea, even if there doesn't appear to be any other callers. The reason for the latter is that the main problem for us down in the southern hemisphere in copying callers is usually the QRN level, rather than QRM from stations all calling at once exactly the same frequency. On the 16 December, there was a nice opening into the eastern USA with signals to S6, but the static and general atmospheric noise was about the same level - a common phenomenon. As it is summer in the southern half of the world, it is REALLY noisy! I ended up asking for heaps of repeats mainly because of the noise. The end result is after operating 160m during summer for 17 years, my (57-year old) hearing is about as good as a longtime drummer in a heavy metal band. AGN.AGN. Vy 73 Steve, VK6VZ _______________________________________________ Stew Perry Topband Distance Challenge coming on December 29th.
