I have several times experienced that short time after I’ve started CQing on a clear frequency, another ham arrives and starts CQing very, very close to my frequency.
I call this “the magnet effect” and I really can’t understand why some hams do this.
I write about this here to hear about your own experience on this matter and also to see if someone can explain the reason why some hams do this.
Sometimes, I’ve even wondered if they do it just to test their narrow CW filter or possibly just to try to attract more hams than me as a way to get empowerment by steeling the frequency or just to demonstrate that his station is better than mine.
Let me show you an example of the magnet effect:
I found 21.012 completely clear.
I asked QRL? 4 or 5 times with no response.
I saw on RBN that no station was being spotted on 21.012 at that time.
I saw M0UNN spotted on 21.014 at 18h36, so I started my CQing.
Notice that as soon as I got spotted by 2 skimmers at 18h36, this English station, who was still CQing on 21.014 at 18h37, immediately QSY 2Kc down, right on top of me, as he was again spotted at 18h37 but now on 21.012.
I could copy him, so I assume he could copy me. He kept CQing and once I went QRT, he did the same.
Is this a way to extinguish any initiative of hams making QSOs?
Extrange world we live in these days…
Let me be sarcastic. Perhaps, he also suffered the magnet effect from somebody else while he was CQing on 21.014 and after someone arrived and started CQing on his frequency, he just QSYed 2Kc down and started CQing without asking QRL? and not caring much because my signal was far too low for him as the be a problem.
Cheers,
Guru,
Yes there is a magnet effect!
I was on 14.06495 trying to hear KE5AKL CQ SOTA
There was a pile up mostly from out west calling him!
After the pile up I guy sends QRL, I sent a “R” right away
and he stayed quiet,I could not copy KE5AKL but I stayed
there ,thought maybe the qsb would come my way!
Then a guy came on and send CQ,over and over, never did send QRL! So it gets all of us! Hi Hi.
Any way I am going to do my log got 2 sota qsos, today.Then going outside for a walk! Have a Great Evening
73 Gary
Yes, ‘magnetic effect’, some a first look at groups, skimmers, etc., then they go to the QRG and if they don’t hear anything, CQ without QRL. Bad practice, they think that if there is a spot they will have a fast takers…
73
Hi Guru,
Yesterdays activation had to be abandoned due to logging in the forest so I did not notice any magnet effect. BUT I totally agree. I tune up on an empty bit of spectrum and start calling CQ Sota. I work my way through the pilup whilst aware of other stations working on or near my QRG. Why?
I suggest they hear the Sota activity on an otherwise empty band and decide to give it a bash having moved away one filter-width. Then another and another it is like a “Mexican Wave” and lo the band is active again.
Take a little time to smile and say “I did that with Sota”
I quite agree that this is often the purpose; being it a sort of parasitic behaviour, perhaps we should call them “ham ticks”
But I also have the impression it’s often a sort of boyish fight they start in order to try to prove who’s station is best.
Quite ridiculous, isn’t it?
I’ve experienced all these when CQing from my base station. Just some very few times when CQing from SOTA and in those rare cases I put it down to an unfortunate coincidence, skip conditions and not checking spots on SOTAwatch.
73,
Could you develop further your argument?
I don’t really see why someone CQing on 21.014 and already spotted correctly by RBN on that frequency would QSY 2Kc down right after a station is spotted CQing on 21.012.
If I’m CQing on a given frequency and the RBN is spotting me, why should I wish to QSY to another frequency, particularly when it’s busy by another station CQing on it?
I really don’t see how this could be related to polarity unless you are talking about mind polarity
73,
I’ve also experienced this effect. Often it may be a coincidence but some will be deliberately trying to ‘poach’ chasers. Maybe, it’s done by the same people who insist in parking their car very close to mine when the car park is almost empty.
You can hear the interfering station, but that does not mean that he can hear you! A SOTA station is normally QRP, perhaps 5 watts. A station operating from home will probably be running 100 watts, in the case of the station mentioned in the first post, if he has that sort of antenna system the odds are that he runs a linear, too. At 400 watts (assuming he sticks to the UK power limit) his signal to you will be 19 dB stronger than your signal to him. Since most Japanese rigs use 3 dB to the S point on their meters, that is over six S points difference. As for QSY-ing he may well have encountered QRM, who knows? There is no need to imply malice when simple physics offers an explaination.
I was running 100W, but I also guess he was running a bit more power.
But I still don’t understand why QSY 2Kc down to start CQing right after you’ve been spotted by RBN CQing on a frequency you are just leaving. Who knows…
By the way, be it coincidence or not, here is apparently the magnet effect at play once again. Just 7 minutes after I was spotted on 28.028 and while I still was CQing on that frequency, a ham started to CQ right on that same frequency. I wasn’t copying him and I’m sure he wasn’t copying me, though.
I guess this was just a coincidence.
Not all RBN spots are shown in the following image to avoid it being too long, but here we can see the magnet effect over and over again.
I started CQing on 28.022 and got spotted for the first time at 16h34z. I made a QSO with a German station and continued CQing after it. Then I got a second spot at 16h45.
The magnet effect brough a Spanish station to my frequency and he started CQing 6 minutes after my last spot. I kept CQing all this time without being spotted nor being responded by anyone, but this Spanish station also had his share of the magnet effect, when, 10 minutes after he was spotted, a Ucranian station arrived to the frequency and started CQing.
At that point I thought that 3 stations CQing on the same frequency was going to be too much, so I went QRT.
I’ve got an interesting result after doing the following on 10m this evening:
I sat on 28.024 at 17h57 and remained there QRV but in complete silence until 18h19. Not a peep and no RBN spot occurred over 23 minutes in that frequency. These are all the RBN spots in that period of time:
Then I started to CQ at 18h23 and I was spotted immediately and the magnet effect occurred in the form of N2ESE CQing and being spotted on 28.024 at 18h25, only 2 minutes after my first spot. I wasn’t copying N2ESE, so I kept CQing without being called by anyone. I was again spotted at 18h32 and once again at 18h34. The magnet effect came into play again when RA3WDK started to CQ and was spotted on 28.024 at 18h43, only 18 minutes after N2ESE and 20 minutes after EA2IF.
It looks to me like people see the spot, go to the frequency, they copy nothing and they decide to start CQing.
