[PaQSO] 15 and 10 meters

[k3yd at aol.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: w4au at verizon.net
To: cwtrench at sprynet.com
Cc: paqso at mailman.qth.net
Sent: Sun, 19 Nov 2006 9:24 PM
Subject: RE: [PaQSO] 15 and 10 meters


Excellent advice, Bud; and thanks for sending out the statistics you've 
compiled over the years.  I've made a couple of comments in the text of 
your email, below.

tnx es 73 - John, W4AU

At 09:10 PM 11/17/2006, AA3B wrote:

>
>1. It is my impression that many of the in state participants under 
utilize
>20M SSB.


You've really hit the nail on the head here, Bud. I've found that the 
big "secret" of success for operating in-state, if there is any big 
secret, is to spend a lot of time running stations on 20 SSB with your 
beam pointed west! This has been true in the Virginia QP over the years 
and in 2006 it really worked for us at W3ZI operating out of Berks 
County in the PAQP. Of course, we had the advantage of operating as a 
multi, so we could keep one station on 20 SSB or CW all the time.


 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::
K3YD says:
I agree that this is a point worth making, however PAQP attracts many 
participants with modest stations (i.e. 100 watts, with dipole or 
ground mounted vertical, etc.)  For the station/op with such modest 
antennas, "running' on 20 SSB is difficult at best and more often is 
futile.  That may be why 20-SSB is under-utilized.

However, I have found 20 CW to be "runnable" with 100 watts and wire 
antennas.

Fifteen, either mode, has never been a good QSO producer for me either, 
but 10-SSB [during high sunspot periods] produces many "unique" QSOs 
although getting an ARRL section to complete an exchange can be 
challenging.  I've worked fixed station ops which not only don't know 
their ARRL section, but don't even know which county they live in.  
This can be a problem in multi-mult states like CA, TX and FL.

73,  Blair K3YD

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