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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. |