I've been listening to competitors in the Black Sea Cup contest this evening. If you're one of those people competing, especially if you're in ITU zone 31, I've got a tip on how you can do better next year.
Shut the f%*& up and listen!
Seriously, I'm not an experienced contestor, but calling CQ contest, then waiting a maximum of two seconds for a reply is not going to get you many contacts. I timed most of the stations I heard and two seconds was the most that they were waiting, that's just long enough for me to hit the PTT and say Victor Kilo. By the time I finished and started listening again, they were half way through their CQs again. Those that were getting contacts were getting them maybe one out of ten CQs. God knows how many people were trying to call them and weren't getting through, I know I gave it a god try. Those that were getting contacts were getting mainly EU stations, or other stations in their area, ie, not the high scoring ones they'd like.
Now, I don't know if this is relevant or not, but 75% of the guilty stations had a nine in their callsigns. Yes, I did count them, I studied statistics at university last year as part of my science degree.
73 and good luck in the contest, Steve VK4VSP
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4 comments:
Probably got their digital voice recordings set to every 2 seconds. Serves themselves right.
I was thinking the same thing Laurie. You'd get a sore throat pretty quickly repeating your CQ over and over with practically no break.
Well I got an automitic voice repeater myself. But have it set on about 6-8 seconds. I only use it in the night hours when pile-ups are quiet. Actually what botters me is the high powered stations calling CQ in contests. You hear them often over a few Khz. And they always have QRM so they can't hear you. I wonder why they need sometimes more then 1 KW?
I always use max. 100W in contests myself. Strange about the 75% "9" calls by the way. 73, Bas
Hi Steve, once I had a PA9B call sign, one way or the other I had the feeling I must get rid of the call sign. Now I know why. ;-) 73 Paul
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