For many years on Top Band I have noticed one recurring problem which is becoming more and more significant, especially for stations using traditional receiving systems. A large amount of industrial QRN, heterodynes, birdies and various spurious carriers appear exactly on round kHz frequencies such as 1825.0, 1826.0, 1827.0 etc. Unfortunately, many DX stations also choose these exact frequencies when calling CQ. During my years on 160m I have lost several rare and potentially new DX QSOs only because the DX station happened to operate exactly on one of these whole-kHz frequencies where local industrial heterodynes made reception extremely difficult or even impossible. I would therefore like to kindly ask DX stations to consider using slightly offset frequencies when calling CQ on Top Band, for example 1825.3, 1826.7, 1829.4 etc., instead of exact integer frequencies. This is especially important for those of us who still use the traditional way of receiving — our own antennas, local receiving arrays and real on-site receivers — rather than remote SDR receivers located hundreds or thousands of kilometers away in electrically quiet locations. Today, a large number of DXers use remote SDR systems for reception, and naturally they often do not hear the same local industrial noise and heterodynes that many traditional stations still have to fight every night on 160m. A small frequency offset may seem insignificant, but in practice it can make the difference between a readable signal and a completely lost QSO. Thank you very much to everyone who takes this into consideration and helps keep Top Band enjoyable and accessible also for stations using classic receiving methods and local antennas. 73 Karel OK1CF
_________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
