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

[David Wilburn]

Agreed.  Though I tend to do both.  I will spin around the bands while
watching the cluster.  My program gives me an indication of the folks
that use LOTW also.  That is a plus.  I am trying to get WAS and DXCC
all through LOTW.  

I find cluster's real handy as I am still working on improving my CW
skills, and when these folks are clipping along, I at least have an idea
on what the calls are that I am listening for.  

I did my first Stew Perry last weekend, and the concept exchanging grid
squares was killing me.  I would try to copy, listening before I tried
to make contact, to get all the info, and they would reply with the call
of the calling station, and the grid square of the running station.  Had
a hard time getting it down so I could catch it.  As the night went on,
I was focusing on the tail end of the calling station's call, and then
new what to listen for as a trigger to listen for the running station's
grid square.

There were thunderstorms in the SE, and lots of QRN here on 160.  I had
recently killed my DSP, so I was without its help.  It was much more
fatiguing that I had expected.  After the 60 contacts on the RAC,
running family errands and shopping, then 50 contacts on Stew Perry (the
longest was 3,145 kilometers) I was shot.
-  

David Wilburn
k4dgw at k4dgw.com
K4DGW
K2 S/N 5982


On Mon, 2007-12-31 at 19:47 +0000, Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy wrote:
> 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.
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 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
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Post to: Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
> Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
>  http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft    
> 
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
> Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com