[Elecraft] K2 QSK

[Vic K2VCO]

Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:
> Vic wrote:
> 
> In order to time your calls in a pileup, you need to hear the DX station 
> start working another station or send TU after finishing a QSO.
> --------------------------
> In that case I'm not sending, so I don't need to hear between dits.

You're sending from the time that the DX finishes his QSO with one 
station and until he starts a QSO with another (hopefully you).  A DX 
pileup can be 10 KHz (or more) wide. Generally one tries to find the 
station that the DX is working, deduce the direction he is tuning, and 
be in the right place.  Sometimes it's very hard to get the guy he's 
working, because lids will call continuously.  I think of it like 
hunting big game (not that I would ever do that, I like animals!) in 
that you need to be in position and take your shot.  Anything that 
improves your ability to be in the right place at the right time makes 
your shots more accurate.  Shooting blind gets you nothing, but the more 
*good* shots you take, the better your chances.  This is why a second 
receiver can be useful, with audio from the DX in one ear and the pileup 
in the other ear.  But it's absolutely necessary to hear him start 
working the station so you know who to look for.

> I suspected that might be the most useful place for between-the-dits extreme
> QSK, where stations pile on top of each other without exercising any
> discipline at all. It does little good to keep shouting while the person
> whose attention you are trying to attract has responded to someone else,
> although I rather feel that if I'm QRMing the other person it was only
> because he/she was QRMing me by calling on top of me. I never start calling
> if I hear others calling before I start, and I expect anyone who responds
> more slowly to wait their turn. I know, that's not how many contesters
> behave. 

In an 'asymmetric' situation, such as a station in NNY who has just come 
on near the end of the Sweepstakes, there are lots of people that want 
to work the running station.  So everytime he stands by, a bunch of 
people call.  There are different strategies for getting through:  you 
can run 1.5KW and have an enormous antenna and try to blot out the other 
callers (not as easy as it sounds because of propagation differences), 
or you can use timing and placement to sneak by.  Since I normally run 
100 watts to a modest antenna, I have to do the latter.  What I like to 
do especially is wait for the first big blob of calls to drop a little 
and then shoot my call in at high speed.  It's very important to have 
QSK because if you do this and the station comes back to someone, you 
better stop sending immediately.

> Contesting is too often just a 'barroom brawl' on the Ham bands.
> 
> That's why I disagree with those who claim that contesting produces useful
> skills for anything but contesting. That's like saying that being able to
> hold your own in a barroom brawl is good training for how to behave in
> polite company.
> I'll stick with polite company where people don't normally shout over me or
> try to interrupt in the middle of a word or even in mid-sentence! 

I don't think good contesters do these things.  I find that some 
contests feel more like a competition among gentlemen than a brawl. 
There will always be lids and those that cheat in some way, but in my 
opinion, there are more lids among the DXers than the contesters.
-- 
73,
Vic, K2VCO
Fresno CA
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco