[Elecraft] As good as it gets...for now?

[Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy]

Tom Childers, N5GE, wrote:

>IMHO, Just as important as a good antenna is not relying on DX clusters to 
>find
>contacts for you.  Tune the bands (slowly) and look for those weak signal
>stations.  They are there, and you can't always depend on the other guys to 
>find
>them for you.  Nobody else in the whole wide world can hear the signals you 
>hear
>at you QTH the same as you do.

>Back before clusters we did a lot more QSX than TX, because we were doing a 
>lot
>of tuning to find stations to rag chew with.  That made QSOs more 
>pleasurable
>when we found them.  Good QSOs are still like good meals.  Rushing through
>either, reduces the enjoyment.

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IMHO DX clusters have not only taken away many of the skills required to 
work 'new ones', but they can make it very difficult to ragchew with a DX 
station who would like to ragchew, as Tom says. It seems to me FWIW that 
once a DX station is spotted a howling mob arrives on frequency, many of 
whom cannot hear the DX station but keep calling anyway.

End of beef!

Happy New Year everyone!

73,
Geoff
GM4ESD