The DX stations will often use directional calls, to manage
the pile-up. They will normally call “Europe only”, “North America only” or
“Asia only”
This is all fine and well if you are located in EU, NA or
AS, but if you are located in Africa (AF), Middle East (ME) or Oceana (OC) you
have a problem.
The expeditions very seldom (if ever) call all the continents in
turn. They switch between the big three NA, EU and AS all the time.
So where does it leave the rest of the amateurs that are not
located in the big three?
Do we ignore the directional call and call regardless? If we
do we stand the risk of being totally ignored or even worse being black listed.
IMHO
It would be better if the DX expeditions used something along
the lines of “Europe and North America standby” meaning all others call now. In
CW that would be “EU NA QRX”
That would be a far better solution?
My assumption has been that the numbers of ops in Africa and Middle East, at least, are small enough that there should be no barrier to them calling at any time. Not sure about Australia/NZ. Is this a fair assumption?
ReplyDeleteHi Sam,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your take on the matter. I guess in the entire Africa there is only about 20 amateurs actively chasing DX.
The DX expeditions will seldom beam towards Africa, therefore some 10 dB+ down both on transmit and receive and then we still have to compete with the huge NA, AS and EU “wall”.
I believe you will have huge fun working the pile-ups from Sudan. It is a rather rare DX entity.
Good Luck and have fun!
I agree with the comments posted so far.
ReplyDeleteSam I hope you will be active during the All Africa All Mode DX competition taking place on the 17 - 18 September. We need lots of African stations on the air