John, PE1OHF gives his vision on EU HSMS
Date: Thu, 04 Sep 1997 17:02:19 +0100
From: John, PE1OGF
To: "Shelby Ennis, W8WN"
Hello Shelby,
Thanks for your message, I've added my "own" answers perhaps others would
have >given different answers but that's how it is.. hihi like you wrote
different people different answers.
Shelby Ennis, W8WN wrote:
John -
We're trying to get HS CW MS operations started over here, and the efforts
seem to be paying off. In only about 4 weeks, we have 10-20 on. (I've
been out of town for two weeks, and it has continued to grow rapidly).
MS procedures (for slower CW & SSB) are slightly different over here than
they are in Europe.
It appears that some operators key their rigs (at slower speeds) through
the regular key jack, while others key an audio tone that is fed into the
mike jack. So here's the first question - If I make a sked with someone,
say, on 144.100 and he is keying by using the key jack, he would probably
set his transmitter on 144.100. But if I then make a sked with another
station on 144.100 who is keying an audio tone at 2000 Hz, would he likely
set his rig on 144.100, would he offset it about 2 kHz, or what? This may
be an obvious thing for you fellows, but it has caused confusion here.
Well we (the nf key guys.. hi) have the same problem and if the sked
frequency is 144.132 for example you tune 144.132 minus your side tone
offset (800 Hz in my case) so for me it's 144.131.20 this means on a
normal rig in CW they receive me on 144.132 So the trick is aligning
your side tone oscillator in the right way !! If they transmit with
2 kHz offset they should receive with 2 kHz offset too but their RX
is "normally" on 800 Hz offset.
The European system is able to send a couple of letters and request a
repeat of something that has been missed. Is this used much? How well
does it work?
Indeed we have a procedure for asking missing information :
BBBB = Both call signs are missing
MMMM = My call sign is missing sometimes used
YYYY = Your call sign is missing sometimes used
SSSS = Report is missing sometimes used
OOOO = Incomplete information
UUUU = Unreadable CW poor keying
This procedure is working quite well if the sked/QSO partner is knowing the
procedure... else it's worthless. I don't use it that much if I receive
something wrong in my skeds for example I receive PE1GGF LA1K 272727 I
answered with LA1K MYCALL PE1OGF PE1OGF PE1OGF not a Roger report because I
don't have complete information yet. This is only possible with good
reflections ofcoarse
Watching the list of stations worked during non-shower periods is quite
amazing to us. What are the most common schedule times, etc? 30 minutes,
60 minutes, or what? What periods are most usually used - 1 minute, 2.5
minutes, or something else?
Normally we make 1 hour skeds in 2.5 minute periods. And really belive me you
don't need major showers for a MS QSO !!! If I make a sked with for tonight /
tomorrow morning with it does not matter who in a 650-1000 miles range we for
95% sure complete the QSO. Most European MS stations are rather QRP compared
to the US stations average stations have 250 to 500 Watt and a single yagi
from 2.2 up to 5wl the better equipped ones up to 1.5 KW or even more and EME
arrays. I'm very often in the weekend QRV saturday and sunday morning 04
to 07 UTC when I have time.
What about CQ frequencies? How many "standard" CQ frequencies are there?
Or do different stations put out information that they will call CQ on a
particular frequency, or what? Is much operation done on 5 kHz spacing,
or is it spread over various frequencies?
We only have 2 SSB random frequencies 144.200 and 144.395 (was 144.400) but
SSB is only used in major showers and 144.395 only during HUGE showers when
144.200 gets over crowded.
144.300 in the normal tropo CQ frequency so these 2 freq. are separate
ONLY MS random calling freq.
For MS CW we use 144.100 and when it is not busy we stay on 144.100
completing >the QSO when there is a huge activity we call CQ+letter
for example CQA = QSY 144.101,
CQE = QSY 144.105,
CQZ = QSY 144.126
By staying on 144.100 making your QSO you can let others hear there is
activity also outside the big showers and it does not matter if there
are 3 stations making a QSO on 144.100 at the same time...
You just pick out what's for you it just makes it a little more difficult
but still not impossible.
Are there stations on calling HS CW CQs most mornings? Evenings?
I can't run QRO in the evening but most stations are QRV during the night or
in the early morning
It appears that 1000 lpm to 2500 lpm are the most common. Are higher
speeds used much for skeds?
Higher speeds than 2500 lpm are getting difficult certainly outside
major showers because reflections are getting weaker and the higher
the speed the more bandwidth you need..
We have stayed with the old "S" (burst length) system over here, while you
are using a 2-number length and strength system. Some over here think we
should exchange grid squares instead, since some contests already require
them. Has there been any discussion over there on this?
No, we only have a MS contest and it does not require grid squares.
It only needs valid MS QSO 1 point for regular QSO or SSB and 3 points
for using the letter system. But I think I have send you the ruses in
a previous message ?
The contest is in Geminids always FB activity from nice DXCC most of the time
and with rare prefixes because prefixes are multipliers then..
We're sure that different people have very different opinions on many of
these things. There is probably no absolutely "best" way; but some methods
are probably better than others. Any suggestions or comments you and
others could make for us would be appreciated.
Thanks & 73,
Shelby, W8WN
73! de John pe1ogf@iaehv.nl
Take a look at my Web-site...
listkeeper of meteor-scatter@qsl.net
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Comments: Rein, W6/PA0ZN