Radio Amateur KC2HMZ wrote:

Hmmm...lemme see...we're faced with the possibility of having a lot of
newcomers with little or no practical experience WRT radio wave
propagation on the HF bands, and thus little knowledge on which to
base selection of a frequency band on which to begin making contacts
at any particular time.

Back in the early days of my HF career, I figured that if the band seems
empty, well either
propagation is out or everyone's asleep or at work or such. In any
event, there's nobody
to qso with, so check other bands.

After a while, one figures out that on say ten meters, you can (when the
sunspots are in)
talk to Texas from NJ, but not Ohio. That the coverage looks more like
a ring instead
of a disc. Which also means that the ham in Texas can hear a ham in
Ohio that you
cannot hear. Thus you could QRM a Ohio to Texas QSO while doing a QSO from
NJ to California. Thus you should realize that the Texan isn't talking
to himself, but
to someone you cannot hear. And QSY up or down a little. But say
you're using
a kilowatt linear to QSO from NJ to California, and the Texan is only
using 50 watts
and is S1 on your receiver and thus you don't know that he's there. BUt
things like this
happen, and it is understood that it is not malicious.

Robert Casey wrote:


Back in the early days of my HF career, I figured that if the band seems
empty, well either
propagation is out or everyone's asleep or at work or such. In any
event, there's nobody
to qso with, so check other bands.

But--- did you listen carefully for any very weak signals on CW? Often that
is the clue to what's happening, or about to happen, on an otherwise seemingly
dead band.
Sometimes when you tune around carefully, listening for any hint of signals,
you'll start something - you hear a very weak one, peak him up with your
receiver filtering, whatever you have to work with, listen long enough to ID him
and where he's located. If he signs off with the station he's working, and
you've tuned up, you give him a call. If he's copying as well as you, he answers
and suddenly you've turned a dead band into a QSO. More often than not, others
will hear you two in QSO and next thing you know they're either calling in
tailending you, or calling CQ nearby and drumming up their own contact. When you
next tune around, there'll be several QSO's going on on the "dead" band.

This scene plays out far more often than you would think, or used to back when
HF experienced hams were the norm rather than the exception. Sure is worth
trying, anyway.

Dick

Dick Carroll wrote:

Robert Casey wrote:


Back in the early days of my HF career, I figured that if the band seems
empty, well either
propagation is out or everyone's asleep or at work or such. In any
event, there's nobody
to qso with, so check other bands.

But--- did you listen carefully for any very weak signals on CW? Often that
is the clue to what's happening, or about to happen, on an otherwise seemingly
dead band.
Sometimes when you tune around carefully, listening for any hint of signals,
you'll start something - you hear a very weak one, peak him up with your
receiver filtering, whatever you have to work with, listen long enough to ID him
and where he's located. If he signs off with the station he's working, and
you've tuned up, you give him a call. If he's copying as well as you, he answers
and suddenly you've turned a dead band into a QSO. More often than not, others
will hear you two in QSO and next thing you know they're either calling in
tailending you, or calling CQ nearby and drumming up their own contact. When you
next tune around, there'll be several QSO's going on on the "dead" band.

This scene plays out far more often than you would think, or used to back when
HF experienced hams were the norm rather than the exception. Sure is worth
trying, anyway.

Dick

One more hint-some of the best DX contacts I've ever had occurred when I called
CQ
on a "dead" band. You get to work the rare one who answers without the "benefit"
of
the hounds, no pileup, no QRM, at least until enough others hear you working him
to
draw a crowd.

Wish more people thought that way about 6 meters!


--
Ryan, KC8PMX
FF1-FF2-MFR-(pending NREMT-B!)
--. --- -.. ... .- -. --. . .-.. ... .- .-. . ..-. .. .-. . ..-.
... --. .... - . .-. ...
One more hint-some of the best DX contacts I've ever had occurred when I
called
CQ
on a "dead" band. You get to work the rare one who answers without the
"benefit"
of
the hounds, no pileup, no QRM, at least until enough others hear you
working him
to
draw a crowd.