[Moon] corrections to "newbie's viewpoint"

Dennis Schaefer dennisw5rz at gmail.com
Thu Feb 7 02:57:12 CET 2008


A couple of apologies and corrections...

First, I did not realize that I shouldn't open a direct discussion of 
CW Vs. digital on the lists -  it makes sense.

Second, it occurred to me that RU1AA may have been operating 
unassisted and my message implied that RU1AA saw our internet post 
and immediately worked us.   I implied that he answered the very 
first CQ.   That was a little bit of inadvertent literary license 
that resulted from trying to show that calling CQ worked much better 
than bumping heads with bigger stations.  Upon thinking back, what 
really happened is that we had run through several CQ cycles, 
possibly around 5 minutes worth, before we worked him.    It is 
completely possible that he just found us.    Most frequencies were 
busy and that is why we didn't CQ the evening before.    We had 
trouble finding a clear spot.   If someone had worked a lot of 
stations and charted the frequencies, checking open frequencies for 
traces would have been quick.    That's what we plan to do next time 
- work on our "random" JT65B skills.   If RU1AA was assisted, then he 
probably saw our spot, but if not, it doesn't necessarily follow that 
he was watching the logger.

Also, I mis-spoke when I said we "heard" 22 stations on 
JT65B.   True, we did hear many stations in the speaker, but I was 
speaking as an old HF operator.    I wouldn't say "I saw 3Y0X on 20 
meter PSK31 today" - I'd say I "heard" him, whether I could 
distinguish him in the speaker or not.   On JT, "hearing" someone 
takes on a whole different connotation and I should be more specific!

Thanks for all the encouragement and good advice - I forgot to 
mention all the mentoring that list members and others gave me as I 
was putting the effort together.    Mostly because of this kind of 
good ham radio spirit, we will go onward and upward as time 
permits!   I've got a couple of nice aluminum dishes sitting in the 
yard and I was a microwave technician in my earlier 
life.....  Somehow this is a lot more fun than busting pileups on 20 meters!

73,
Dennis  W5RZ




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