but please respect if i´ m calling CQ DX ! especially at early morning activations with the focus on VK contacts ! today one…two chasers make it happens that one VK chaser had no chance to get in my log by continuous calling and calling over the vk chaser…sorry for not in my log. but this morning big problems with some chasers in ssb and also cw…i asked often for stand by please and DX only, but no chance.
i like the friendly athmosphere in sota chasing and activating, and i think i´ m a friendly one :-),
but if this happens again, i will start my private blacklist !
all who know my activation style wait a little time . i go out very early at first for doing some vk dx contacts. but if the dx is worked i go never from the summit without calling for eu-chasers ! the vk dx window is sometimes small, but working europe after that is no problem for longer. so please, respect my calls for dx and wait a bit. i call for eu for sure after dx is worked !
thanks for nice contacts again and hope work you all again !
vy 73 klaus df2gn/p
edit : by the way, S2S contacts are also DX so if i call for DX i listen also for S2S …dx or eu, no problem !
In reply to DF2GN:
Hi klaus,
I experienced the same as you yesterday, with chasers calling when I specifically said I wanted to check for some VK contacts that I had lined up and then would come back to all other chasers. One chaser in particular kept calling (I wont name names) but I managed to get a window but with general QRM and heavy QSB I did not manage a contact into VK. The first time in this long path time window that it has not worked for me. It appears those running more power managed some contacts so perhaps conditions were borderline yesterday.
73 Ed.
P.S. will try for short path VK (plus Europe and perhaps even USA) tomorrow afternoon from DM/BM-226 - Alert posted on SOTAWatch.
In reply to DF2GN:
I must go into bat for Klaus what patience he shows among the bedlam as I could copy it in all its glory. I was lucky to make the S2S contact this time on ssb but with failing light I had to clear the summit before Klaus went to cw as I liked my chances on cw more so than ssb. Some people think the world must be about to end and they want that qso in the log as the alligator trapper bursts through their door with a roll of gaffer tape. My experience on cw that day was the opposite I got 23 qso’s from Europe and it took an hour roughly no rush just pick the one you hear best and get the others next.
Klaus was politely asking people to stand by so he could try for dx or s2s the alligators were having none of it. better luck next time Klaus.
de Ian vk5cz …
It would be nice if that were true. Some of the complaints that have been sent to me were about disruptive operating on CW. I don’t know how prevalent disruptive operating is on CW as I don’t operate that mode and am dependent on receiving complaints before taking action, but the evidence is that it does happen.
Some people think the world must be about to end and they
want that qso in the log as the alligator trapper bursts through their
door with a roll of gaffer tape.
Yes, that’s the problem. In these days of little empathy and respect to the others, impatience is driving people acts too often.
Wishing something (sometimes everything) just now and doing whatever is necessary to get it now is boyish, egoist and highly unacceptable at the adulthood age we all here are, I guess…
There are plenty of time to do things in life and to me, doing them slowly is a privilege and they are more enjoyable than in permanent rush.
I reckon I was more impatient when I was younger and I’m perhaps saying this now because I’ll be starting my 50s begining of next year,
Best 73 de Guru - EA2IF
To some extent the impatience of the alligators is a response to the unique character of SOTA. I do not think there is any other major award scheme where the opportunity to gain points is so fleeting. Activators are not going to spend long sitting on a summit, the Chasers know this and are eager to gain their contact before the Activator decides that he has spent long enough in the cold and the wind, and brings the activation to an end. This eagerness will sometimes become aggressiveness as the Chaser calls fruitlessly, the longer the Chaser calls unsuccessfully, the more he has invested in that particular wanted contact, and the closer comes the time when the activation will come to an end. This aggressiveness can tip over into liddery and disruptive operating, prolonging the time that the Activator has to spend gaining contacts, and this is why the MT is prepared to intervene in the worst cases.
On my last activations (not as before) I’m trying to work CW (first) and later SSB as well. And believe me, I don’t want -and I don’t think I could- to find the whys or hows but being alligators on both, the number I’ve found on SSB is pretty larger than in CW.
I would guess just one possible explanation. In SSB following -copying- the activators’ instructions -only DX, pse only HB, etc.- could be more difficult than in CW, because the low power used and the bigger QRM generated by other chasers in SSB.
I never wanted to say that CW operators are better educated or more polite than SSB ones, but in my -short- experience, I’ve have met more (a large more) green big mouth animals, with the mike than with the keyer. As I have met very fine operators on both modes, must say.
But I’ve wrote recently what happened to me ( Hiking in the mountains: tips for beginner hikers - Mountain Day ) when, on CW, asked for a QRX for DX… It was one of the best experiences that I have had while activating. And I thanked all the people being there waiting.
Anyway, as Guru said, SOTA would not be so funny if we could reach the MG and SS on one week, or chase all the activators out there. For that we have Facebook, Whatsapp,…
I have now 91 chaser points (almost MG) and 2649 as SS. I will reach both awards, but I hope to have to wait a lot of long years of hiking and radio in front of me to do it.
In reply to EA2IF:
I will also add (as much as a reminder to myself as to others) that should a pile-up occur, it will be appreciated by the chasers if the activator switches to short overs “contest style” just report and call signs rather than chatting, so that all chasers waiting get a chance of the contact in the limited time or conditions available.
so if i call for DX i listen also for S2S …dx or eu, no problem !