What the heck is all that SLOP BUCKET on 160????

[steve_qix]

Man - 160 meters is WALL TO WALL  *DUCKS*.!  What is going on?  It's a real mess.  Usually, I get on 160 in the evenings - not THIS evening, that's for sure.

Wow.

Regards,

Steve

[K5UJ]

probably this:

http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/contestdetails.php?ref=259

[Pete, WA2CWA]

I'm having fun. The Contest Corral http://www.arrl.org/contest-calendar is your guide for contest nirvana.

[Vortex Joe - N3IBX]

The corntesters are having their corntest thang I'ze a guessin!

[k3zrf]

Swell...

I'm having fun. The Contest Corral http://www.arrl.org/contest-calendar is your guide for contest nirvana.

[W3SLK]

Pete said:

I'm having fun. The Contest Corral http://www.arrl.org/contest-calendar is your guide for contest nirvana.

You would Pete, you would.  

[Steve - K4HX]

The 3700 kHz region of 80 meters was very uncluttered. That portion many nights is just as quiet as 160 meters is on a non-contest night. I had a nice QSO with N2RY, WA4PGI and N4RSS on 3705 with Nary a SSB signal heard. Later, F6AQK was coming through at about S9 to +5 db over.

[k4kyv]

Unlike most QuaRMtests, they were all way up to the top edge of the band.  Usually, QuaRMtest activity dwindles off above 1900, with little if any activity above 1950.

I managed to get a QSO started on 1885, with a station in MI who was running a Yaesu on AM through a linear. After a few minutes, all slopbucketeers were gone, leaving us a hole in the band, and the frequency remained clear the rest of the evening.

Steve, I heard you try to break in, but when we turned it over to you, you were gone.

All slopbucket signals were five-nine. 

[Steve - K4HX]

I could hear you OK, but the other guy was getting clobbered by a contester located pretty close to me. I figured you two guys were hearing each other FB, I would just move on.

[k4kyv]

If you can't beat'em, join'em.

If I get clobbered by slopbucket QuaRMtesters to-night, I'll just jump in and do a little QuaRMtesting myself.  Of course, they won't likely even realise I am transmitting on AM...  And, I'll give honest signal reports, none of that bogus 5-9 rubbish.

I'll submit a log per instructions on the website, to make sure the QuaRMtesters I work keep it honest and accurately report the signal reports they get from me.

 

[K5UJ]

send the log in on paper.  to heck with all that cabrillo nonsense. 

[KR4WI]

QRZ.....again again, I got the KR repeat ur suffix a couple of times, Ok got it ur, 59.  It is sorta silly, is it not? Why not just give the correct rst? It would be just as fast and easy.  KR4WI

[Pete, WA2CWA]

QRZ.....again again, I got the KR repeat ur suffix a couple of times, Ok got it ur, 59.  It is sorta silly, is it not? Why not just give the correct rst? It would be just as fast and easy.  KR4WI

Because, no one cares how strong or weak they are as long as a report acknowledgment is made.

[W2VW]

QRZ.....again again, I got the KR repeat ur suffix a couple of times, Ok got it ur, 59.  It is sorta silly, is it not? Why not just give the correct rst? It would be just as fast and easy.  KR4WI

Because, no one cares how strong or weak they are as long as a report acknowledgment is made.

Excellent preparation for an emergency.

[KD0HUX]

If you can't beat'em, join'em.

If I get clobbered by slopbucket QuaRMtesters to-night, I'll just jump in and do a little QuaRMtesting myself.  Of course, they won't likely even realise I am transmitting on AM...  And, I'll give honest signal reports, none of that bogus 5-9 rubbish.

I'll submit a log per instructions on the website, to make sure the QuaRMtesters I work keep it honest and accurately report the signal reports they get from me.

 

[K5UJ]

I suppose y'all may as well know the ARRL Int. DX bucket contest is next weekend also, Mar. 5 and 6.  Plan accordingly.

[Steve - K4HX]

Which begs the question why have a report at all? If the guy on the other end answers with your call, you're done. It would allow a lot more contacts to be made not wasting time with a useless report. The scores would be phenomenal! No records would be set.

QRZ.....again again, I got the KR repeat ur suffix a couple of times, Ok got it ur, 59.  It is sorta silly, is it not? Why not just give the correct rst? It would be just as fast and easy.  KR4WI

Because, no one cares how strong or weak they are as long as a report acknowledgment is made.

[k4kyv]

Nothing in the published QuaRMtest rules mentions anything about mandatory five-nines.

I would want to know how well my signal was getting out in all directions and all distances.

That bogus 5-9 crap just ratchets the dumbing-down effect one more notch.

I fail to see any thrill in spending hours yelling "CQ Contest" into the mic just to see how many contacts I could chalk up, with no regard to how well the other station is hearing me or anything else except his state or province. I would take me about 5 minutes to lose interest through sheer boredom.

But I don't guess many of them actually yell in the mic any more.  Most of the CQ Contest calls sound like automated robots. You can tell it's a robot when you hear the same inflections or random background noises that happen to occur on certain syllables repeated over and over on each call.

[K5UJ]

At one time contests met a legitimate need, or rather the stated need and real need were the same.  The idea for them was first conceived in the 1930s with, IIRC from my reading, the Sweepstakes and / or Int. DX Contest being first.  The thinking was that there were not many ham stations and operating times for hams were random.  That made it difficult to learn about propagation and quickly and easily evaluate different circuits and antennas.  Someone, maybe Handy, can't remember, got the idea for a way to get all hams, or as many as possible, to be active at the same time.  The carrot was to make it competitive and award prizes (certificates) as a lure to get hams to be active but the real purpose was to have a good way to test stations and learn about band condx and antennas.  

That need long ago went away on HF at least, with today's ionosphere analysis methods, accumulated body of knowledge and sophisticated tx and rx gear and antennas.   Today's contests are mostly a ham economic engine.  There is a symbiotic relationship between magazines, manufacturers, vendors, ham consumers and contests.   Take a look at shack photos of contest stations.  You will likely see lots of new plastic gadgets and plastic radios but probably never see anything like a KW Matchbox or 75A-2 sitting there.

Contesters themselves will tell you they account for the vast majority of new equipment purchases, plus the big towers and beams that really generate the big money for antenna vendors and makers.  Magazines like CQ would probably be in trouble financially if it were not for the contests they sponsor.  Probably half of the CQ subscribers are contesters who are only interested in the CQ contest results.   And they run ads for vendors and manufacturers for stuff that gets bought by contesters.   So the RST thing is irrelevant as real information content because no one cares about what contests were originally invented for--it's all about winning, selling and buying.   This is why contests have been warped into an almost modern day radio video game with everything run by PCs, and everything as automated as possible.   If you talk to these guys, you learn that a majority of station maintenance time is spent on debugging software and resolving PC-radio compatibility issues.  That's not my idea of a good time.  

If the ARRL were really interested in bringing contesting back to its roots by changing the rules to force hams to give real reports or, in the case of Field Day, make emergency preparedness (supposedly the real purpose of Field Day) the prime goal I'd bet participation would drop by at least 50%.  That won't happen because the real prime goal is (as is often the case) this:  $$$.   I don't have a problem with free market commerce which is what this is all about but I'd have a lot less problem with contests if those involved would quit kidding themselves with all this baloney about signal reports, emcom, station evaluations etc. and admit that what drives contests and spawns yet more of them, the big ones at least, is that they generate revenue and provide some operators with ego gratification.

  
 

[W3SLK]

Rob said:

Probably half of the CQ subscribers are contesters who are only interested in the CQ contest results.

I always thought that CQ was not only a connotation of a CW call but in essence stands for "Co(r)ntester Quartely." 

[KX5JT]

Rob said:

Probably half of the CQ subscribers are contesters who are only interested in the CQ contest results.

I always thought that CQ was not only a connotation of a CW call but in essence stands for "Co(r)ntester Quartely." 

Nahhh I call CQ when there seems to be no activity.  Has nothing to do with contests.  I think CQ comes from an age WAYY BEFORE any corntests.

[WA3VJB]

But I don't guess many of them actually yell in the mic any more.  Most of the CQ Contest calls sound like automated robots. You can tell it's a robot when you hear the same inflections or random background noises that happen to occur on certain syllables repeated over and over on each call.

Don, when you think about what's out there for record/playback, voice recognition, and remote receivers, I bet someone already has an application that allows COMPLETELY automated contesting. 

The human comes back at the end of the weekend, and the rig prints out a receipt with the tally of contacts.  A PDF has already been emailed to the contest sponsor.

And the weekend instead has been spent elsewhere.

[W3SLK]

John said:

I think CQ comes from an age WAYY BEFORE any corntests.

The call did. But the magazine came out around the time co(r)ntests were becoming the rage.

[KM1H]

I spent a few hours in the 160 contest last night shaking down an Alpha 76PA I just rebuilt for a customer. Its an excellent way to get a lot of RF out the pipes in a short time.

Carl

[k4kyv]

Usually the 160m QuaRMtests occupy about the lower 80 to 150 kc/s of the band, and leave the top end unmolested, with plenty of room for non-QuaRMtesters to operate.  Not this time.  They SOLIDLY occupied every kc/s of the band from 1800.0 to 2000.0, and were very aggressive about holding onto the frequency.  I tried a couple of times to start an AM QSO in the vicinity of 1885 and  right away multiple QuaRMtesters jumped right on the frequency with their automated CQs, obviously to discourage anyone from answering my (automated) CQ. 

I could have just gone on and let the thing keep running all evening, but instead, decided to give CW a try.  There were NO CW stations on the lower end of the band at all.  So I fired up on 1802 kc/s with a CQ.  Some unidentified station kept sending "QRL" (but no callsign), even though no slopbucketeer was audible down that low in the band. Finally a PW CW station answered me, and we carried on for a few minutes.  When we signed out, a weak station from California came back, but about then, a slopbucketeer up the band about 5 kc/s let loose with a broad, splattering signal that wiped out the band all the way down to 1800.  Actually, he wasn't splattering; it almost sounded like IBOC in the AM BC band.  His splatter stopped up the band a way from where I was operating, but he generated additional white noise hash on both sides of his signal, which varied syllabically with his voice. I was able to copy about 50% through the hash, but then another one came on; this time his LSB extended all the way down to the edge of the band, so I finally gave it up as a lost cause.

From the strengths of many of those signals all way across the band, there must be MANY stations on the air that have the capability of putting out a strong signal on 160, whether with good, high dipoles or well grounded verticals, or by using the "Eimac antenna" solution. But where are they other 50-odd weeks a year?  It takes a  lot of work to get a really good signal on top band, and it usually isn't cheap. I find it hard to believe that anyone would really go to all that much trouble and spend all that much money just to get on the air and inanely swap five-nines for one or two weekends a year.

Regarding Sweepstakes, back in the 30's when it was first created, it wasn't just one or two weekends.  It lasted a whole week.  If that included both weekends and all days in between, that means it went on for 9 full days!