I couldn’t believe it at the time, but this morning, I actually got scolded on the air. I had been calling CQ on 7035 kHz, but when I failed to get a response after three or four calls, I decided to tune around a bit. I could have been off frequency for more than a minute or two.
I didn’t hear any other CQs, so I decided to return to 7035 and try again. Well, instead of a reply and a nice QSO, I got:
U SHUD HV SENT QRL? FIRST
I couldn’t believe what I had just copied, so I asked the guy, who didn’t identify himself, by the way, to repeat, and he did. I told him that I’d been calling on frequency just a minute earlier, so when I returned to the frequency, I didn’t think I needed to ask if the frequency was in use again. Technically, he was correct, but come on, I’d only been off frequency maybe a minute and a half—and I did listen for a little bit before calling CQ again.
I asked him his call again, but again he didn’t answer. So, I upbraided him, noting that he was breaking the rules by not IDing. He slunk away, and I didn’t hear his signal again. I proceeded to have a nice, long ragchew with Ron, N4PGJ.
Good receiver, low noise?
Sometimes, I’ll try calling stations whose signals are on the edge here. They might be S3 or S4 on the meter here, but with decent readability. The contact might not be ragchew material, but at least I can answer their CQs and hopefully give them a contact.
I’d say that about only half the time do they ever come back to me. In thinking about why this is so, a couple of things occur to me:
- They have a much higher noise level than I do here. I’m fortunate that generally my noise level is S2 or less. If their noise level is higher, and I’m only S3 or S4 at their QTH, they’re not going to hear me.
- I have a better receiver than they do. The receiver in my IC-746PRO is really good.
- Less likely, but possible, is that the path from my QTH to theirs is just not as good as from their QTH to mine.
Whatever the reason, it can be frustrating
Few 17 m RBN spotters
I like to check the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) whenever I call CQ. It tells me whether or not I’m getting out even if I’m not getting any replies to my CQs. Not always, though.
A couple of days ago, I thought I’d give 17m a try. I tuned around a bit and heard a Route 66 special event station calling CQ, but by the time I got the antenna tuned up, he had disappeared.
So, I wandered back down to the bottom of the band and started calling CQ. After no replies to two or three calls, I opened up an RBN browser window. I wasn’t getting any spots there, either.
Then, I happened to look over at the list of skimmers online. This is in the right-hand column and looks something like the figure at right. What I’m showing here is only a small sample of all of the skimmers around the world.
What hit me is how few were monitoring 17m. At the present time (1916Z), only 14 of the 152 skimmers reporting to the Reverse Beacon Network are monitoring 17m. When I was calling CQ, there were even fewer.
All of the skimmers are volunteers, of course, so I can’t really complain, but it would be nice if there were more 17m monitors. I’m going to have to find my October 2016 issue of QST and get set up to be an RBN skimmer myself. That issue contains the article “The Reverse Beacon Network” by Pete Smith, N4ZR, and Ward Silver, N0AX. It explains how the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) is used to observe and report both CW and RTTY communications and how to become an RBN receiving node.
Dave New, N8SBE says
There might be a lot more stations running skimmer if it wasn’t for the $70 cost of the software, which is about as much as the entire HRD (Ham Radio Deluxe) suite. Since I can’t use it in any contests that prohibit assistance, it seems kind of steep for the functionality, in terms of cheap ham prices. :-)
Bob Truitt says
Guess I’ve been living under a rock! Until I accidentally ran into the qthcq.com website and decided to subscribe, I did not know how the reverse beacon network worked! I even had to look up what “RBN” meant! Suddenly, I’m seeing all these loggings of my HF/CW contacts and CQs!
Who would have believed it?! I only run 5-Watts to an ATX Walkabout antenna which is mounted to my “go-box” and the rig is usually indoors! I know the little rig gets out but the number of stations reporting hearing me when the band appears “dead” is crazy! Ha ha! Thanks to those volunteers on the system for adding a new twist to the hobby!
73, DE WA4A