On Wed, 01 Feb 2006 08:58:55 -0500, N1KI wrote:

I am not sure if this is appropriate under this subject, but it may
help explain what is going on. A few weeks ago I spent an evening
when 80 meters was open to Europe listening around the lower CW
portion of the band. Several stations were CQ'ing with no callers,
but they would have an instant pile up shortly after I "spotted" them
on the clusters. I suspect many of these had called before ever
hearing the DX station.

So stop spotting them. If there were no spots, folks would actually
have to listen and find the DX. And the DX would actually have to
give out their calls and announce where they are listening more
frequently, which would be refreshing.

Wes Stewart wrote:
On Wed, 01 Feb 2006 08:58:55 -0500, N1KI wrote:

I am not sure if this is appropriate under this subject, but it may
help explain what is going on. A few weeks ago I spent an evening
when 80 meters was open to Europe listening around the lower CW
portion of the band. Several stations were CQ'ing with no callers,
but they would have an instant pile up shortly after I "spotted" them
on the clusters. I suspect many of these had called before ever
hearing the DX station.

So stop spotting them. If there were no spots, folks would actually
have to listen and find the DX. And the DX would actually have to
give out their calls and announce where they are listening more
frequently, which would be refreshing.

Instead, we have a contest "who spots first and does so ith the most precise
QSX information at the time of the QSO".

Peter Lemken
DF5JT
Berlin

--
Paul Lincke ist dem Zille sein Milhaud.

(Harry Rowohlt)

Wes Stewart wrote:

So stop spotting them. If there were no spots, folks would actually
have to listen and find the DX. And the DX would actually have to
give out their calls and announce where they are listening more
frequently, which would be refreshing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Amen. Too bad we can't "uninvent" all kinds of spotting. It's a curse,
even though I admit I use it from time to time. A character flaw, to be
sure.

73, Bill W6WRT

On 1 Feb 2006 18:02:20 GMT, "Bill Turner" wrote:

Wes Stewart wrote:

So stop spotting them. If there were no spots, folks would actually
have to listen and find the DX. And the DX would actually have to
give out their calls and announce where they are listening more
frequently, which would be refreshing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Amen. Too bad we can't "uninvent" all kinds of spotting. It's a curse,
even though I admit I use it from time to time. A character flaw, to be
sure.

I've been "flawed" a few times by peeking at an Internet cluster (is
that what they're called?) to get a feel for propagation. Although I
have a computer in the shack for logging it's not Internet enabled and
I don't use packet. (Two-meters should only be used for EME and
meteor scatter (g))

So my looking at spots requires going in another room and booting the
XYL off the computer. Needless to say, the wise thing to do is locate
my own DX. Besides, the guy who "spotted" them first actually spotted
them first without a spot. Somebody's got to do it.

Another thing that would help (and I think I've seen this happen) is
for the DX station to monitor the spots and as soon as he's spotted he
QSYs.

Or the DX could do like one DXpedition op did. He was on 14.195 and
announced, "Listening up 5 to 10 (pause) and 14.190. I worked him on
14.190 on the first call. Heh heh.

Wes N7WS

"Wes Stewart" wrote in message
...
On 1 Feb 2006 18:02:20 GMT, "Bill Turner" wrote:

Wes Stewart wrote:

So stop spotting them. If there were no spots, folks would actually
have to listen and find the DX. And the DX would actually have to
give out their calls and announce where they are listening more
frequently, which would be refreshing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Amen. Too bad we can't "uninvent" all kinds of spotting. It's a curse,
even though I admit I use it from time to time. A character flaw, to be
sure.

I've been "flawed" a few times by peeking at an Internet cluster (is
that what they're called?) to get a feel for propagation. Although I
have a computer in the shack for logging it's not Internet enabled and
I don't use packet. (Two-meters should only be used for EME and
meteor scatter (g))

So my looking at spots requires going in another room and booting the
XYL off the computer. Needless to say, the wise thing to do is locate
my own DX. Besides, the guy who "spotted" them first actually spotted
them first without a spot. Somebody's got to do it.

Another thing that would help (and I think I've seen this happen) is
for the DX station to monitor the spots and as soon as he's spotted he
QSYs.

Or the DX could do like one DXpedition op did. He was on 14.195 and
announced, "Listening up 5 to 10 (pause) and 14.190. I worked him on
14.190 on the first call. Heh heh.

Wes N7WS

What's wrong with using the technology and THEN listen on the frequency and
see if you can actually HEAR the DX before calling? Now that is a radical
thought.

Dan/W4NTI

There's another strange 'cluster spotting' phenomenon that I don't
understand at all. Tonight, LZ4UU was on 40 cw sending his or her
call frequently. There were 4 consecutives spots for LZ1UU (not 4)
on exactly the same freq (7001.5) at 0211, 0217, 0219 and 0220 UT
by four (apparently) different people. The station always sent 4,
never 1, while I was listening. How does one explain that?

Derek
aa5bt

Derek Wills wrote:

There's another strange 'cluster spotting' phenomenon that I don't
understand at all. Tonight, LZ4UU was on 40 cw sending his or her
call frequently. There were 4 consecutives spots for LZ1UU (not 4)
on exactly the same freq (7001.5) at 0211, 0217, 0219 and 0220 UT
by four (apparently) different people. The station always sent 4,
never 1, while I was listening. How does one explain that?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Easy. Using a telnet program like SpotCollector, if you double click on
a bad call in order to QSY to that call, the bad call gets pre-entered
in the "Outgoing spot" box. Unless you notice the error, the next spot
you make will have the bad call.

The next question is why anyone would re-spot a call that's just been
spotted and for that, I have no answer.

73, Bill W6WRT

\Wes Stewart wrote:

On Wed, 01 Feb 2006 08:58:55 -0500, N1KI wrote:


I am not sure if this is appropriate under this subject, but it may
help explain what is going on. A few weeks ago I spent an evening
when 80 meters was open to Europe listening around the lower CW
portion of the band. Several stations were CQ'ing with no callers,
but they would have an instant pile up shortly after I "spotted" them
on the clusters. I suspect many of these had called before ever
hearing the DX station.


So stop spotting them. If there were no spots, folks would actually
have to listen and find the DX. And the DX would actually have to
give out their calls and announce where they are listening more
frequently, which would be refreshing.

NAW!!! No need to stop spotting them. Use spotting to your advantage!
grin

Example: LA4WD is actually working 14010.0 QSX +2

Simply spot them as working 14020.0 QSX +5.

Results: Those who hear 'em work 'em. Those who chase spots are gone !!!!!