Good contact old man?

I have been preoccupied over the last week and haven’t looked at the reflector e-mails, so tonight I’m catching up.

I realise that the discussion of last week regarding confirming signal reports in the database is now closed.

For my part the signal report high or low is not important to me, although I always record it, however I wish to comment not on if a report has been received and logged correctly, but did a 2 way radio contact actually take place?

In my experience as an activator I have occasionally found that the timing from Chasers coming back to me sometimes makes me suspicious that the Chaser isn’t copying my signal. This tends to happen more when using FM mode when a carrier can be sensed, without necessarily hearing what is being said. This may be caused by fading or (I believe) ESP coming into play based on what is seen on the SOTAWatch screen.

What I usually do if the timing is wrong and to be sure that the contact is a good one, (and let’s face it, it is always the Chasers who struggle to hear not the Activator) I will ask the Chaser - did you get my report? or are you copying me? If I do not get a response to my question at the right time, I repeat the same question three times. If I still get no answer I say “no contact” and the caller is erased from my log. Hopefully the caller will try again later if the lack of reception is due to fading, and a QSO will be made before the summit is vacated.

Has any other activator found this happens to them, and if so how do you deal with it?

73 Phil G4OBK

Has any other activator found this happens to them,

Yes

and if so how do you deal with it?

Pretty much the same as you Phil.

Tom M1EYP

In reply to G4OBK:

I think this depends heavily on the propagation mode of the QSO. As an example when the satellite goes below the horizon it is not very useful to ask any confirmations anymore. One of the stations can have technical failure at the end of the QSO, which prevents any further exchange of information. The FM carrier itself is also fine if you modulate it with on/off keying. Should probably try sometimes cw with the PTT button :slight_smile:

73, Jaakko OH7BF/F5VGL