[NLRS] E-Skip Feedback

[Mary Brown]

Oops thought I included the reflector… 

 

4 new grids…

 

You are 94 degrees from me, my bean width is narrow, 10 degrees and I am off you! Well off the loudest part of your signal, living rural I can hear well off the sides and back, not a lot of manmade noise unless I point east into town. I can almost always hear the louder Twin Cities stations even when I am 20-30 degrees off of them.  Mast mounted preamp helps that as does extreme low loss on my feed line! Running LFD7-50 to the base of the tower and 10 feet up it, then I transition to FSJ4-50 for the last 25 feet to the preamp(telescoping tower, need the flexible section). I am 350 miles from the WD9BGA/b beacon and I use it as a band indicator, right now with flat band conditions it is S0 but very readable, it is very rare I can’t hear it, band conditions have to be really really bad. 

 

You will have a higher noise floor being urban, if you don’t have a mast mounted preamp it makes a difference…  

 

My point being we all hear differently, it is common courtesy during band openings to move up or down, or leave long pauses if rag chewing because I might be hearing stations you aren’t and vice versa! 

 

The biggest help for the smaller stations is saying the call ad grid of whoever you are working, It tells them where to point. And t give them a chance to work that station instead of hitting the voice memory and CQing on a loop. 

 

And many still use older radios that are not all that selective… with the IC-9700 I can kill QRM 3KC’s off(at the expense of intelligibility with my hearing loss…I try to run with filters set wide), my FT-991 wouldn’t  and it is a newer radio! Some still run even older stuff! I remember my days of running an IC-251A and a mirage brick with a modded preamp. I even made EME contacts with it!  But it was horrible for selectivity! Stations 10kc off would pump the AGC and cause hash… 

 

Mary

W0AAT

 

From: Rich Westerberg [mailto:richn0hjz at gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2021 9:34 PM
To: Mary Brown
Subject: Re: E-Skip Feedback

 

You should send this to the whole group.  Great stuff! 

 

I made most of my Q's on .200 and .195.  Others were made at .210 and .215 but it seemed like very few ventured that far.  

 

Maybe it was the direction but no one was loud at my place.  I need to find my peak on you.  You've never been a problem to me for QRM.  Maybe we've always been pointed in the right (wrong) direction.  Next summer when I get some stacked yagis at 70 feet, that might be different.

 

Hope you grabbed some new ones today.  I think I grabbed five.  I hope they all have LOTW!!

 

73

Rich

 

On Wed, Jul 14, 2021 at 9:15 PM Mary Brown <maryalanab at gmail.com> wrote:

I was doing hunt and pounce mostly… every time I started to CQ someone would move in on me… one of the VE’s commented “The Minnesota guys are all stacked within 5kc of .200” and that says a lot! Spread out! People will find you eventually! I was calling CQ as far as 20kc up and down. I would have been off the backs of the Twin Cities guys antennas so shouldn’t have been to big of an issue, and I listened way more than I called. 

 

LISTEN MORE! Make sure that freq is not in use. More than once someone called CQ on top of the rarer grids in Canada who were working people one or two grids from them. Something I hear well with an EME array… even if they were not strong enough for me to work I didn’t call over them!

 

I noticed some of the station out east were new to 2m e-skip, they wanted to rag chew, I made it as short as I possibly could to not clutter the freq and to let others work them. On e-skip a rag chew is NOT a good idea on 2m! Conditions change rapidly, for me it came in waves for 2 hours… signals would drop to that low level bits and pieces of voices rumble telling me the band was still open but just not to me. That is when I would go up or down and CQ… 

 

And I always announce the grid I am working, and often the other guys call so others have a clue who it is and where to point! I do this on tropo too! It gives others with smaller stations a hand. I worked some guys on loops out east, weak signals and if people on this end hear the call and grid they can pick it out better when they try a QSO.

 

And my biggest pet peeve:

 

DO NOT go 2-3kc up from the calling freq and CQ! If someone needs their noise blanker on it totally trashed the calling freq! Even with the noise blanker off it causes noise on the calling freq!

 

This all applies to ALL band openings and contests! I remember contesting and everyone telling others where the DX was and standing by to give them a chance to work it. Then that became a me me me attitude and contesting became not fun. VHF contesting is NOT the same as HF, DX is often a small slice of the country and everyone wants to work it!  On HF DX is all over the place and it will often be in for hours, on VHF it may only be there for 15-20 minutes then gone as the band changes. 

 

LISTEN MORE

HELP OTHERS

SPREAD OUT!!!!

 

I run 1kw to decent antenna gain(18.92dbd) so I know I can be loud… and I try to NOT be a nuisance! If guys out east were making Q’s with loops that means guys in MN could be doing the same and their 2db of antenna gain means they cannot pick stations out of the noise floor like I can. QRM off to the side can wipe their receive! 

 

Mary

W0AAT

EN24ho

 

From: Rich Westerberg [mailto:richn0hjz at gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2021 8:49 PM
To: MIke Cizek W0VTT; Mary Brown; w0ghz at arrl.net; rogerr at hickorytech.net; Matt Arthur; Jon Platt
Subject: E-Skip Feedback

 

Hi All -

 

I'm sending this to W0AAT, W0VTT, KA0PQW, W0GHZ, W0ZQ & W0RPR.  I hope I have all the email addresses right.

 

We sure had a good opening today on 2M.  Lots of grids and the length of the opening sure made it fun.  I'm looking for some feedback.  

 

We were all pointed east/northeast and working the same guys within a 10-15 khz area.  Some of us have power and some don't.  We seemed to be good at taking turns calling CQ into the opening.  Is there anything we can do to make it easier for everyone to get into the opening and not QRM each other?

 

Although I've been on VHF for decades, I've been off for a while.  Just wondering if there are things we can do to improve everyone's grid counts.

 

Cheers to a great opening today!  I'm hoping we get some more Es during this season.

 

73

Rich N0HJZ