LF pileup suggestion (was: Re: LF: IK5ZPV >< RU6LWZ)

[DL4YHF@aol.com]

Hello Group,

Giulio wrote:

>> So, if a strong EU call in qrss during the DX call, is really hard listen all two the signal togheter, agc on rx and on the SW not help in this situation.
So like is made in low band ( i use only 160), never the dx call and receive on same qrg, but always in split, so may be that this operation mode help us also on 137, the dx may call at 137.00, and listen all the station around 137.70.
<<

Yes indeed, a strong station in the neighbourhood sometimes exceeds the receivers dynamic range with the AGC turned off (luckily this only happened one single time during the RU6 activity, but surely it was an accident). It makes no sense to call the DX station while the DX is transmitting, because not many stations have "full-bk" capability, and even with full-bk it would be hard to decode anything in slow CW.

A 700Hz split offset would help in a way, but it would be hard to work such a DX station without knowing the operation details. So you could not work them without internet access (or a friend who tells you; hard to do this in QRSS ;-). I like the old way of monitoring the band, hearing something interesting, make a call and work the other station without the need to make contact via internet, DX cluster, cell phone etc. 
Of course, most LF activists have access to the internet or packet radio network, so why not use it.. and agreeing on  a certain procedure for 'special events' before they actually take place certainly helps.
On 144MHz meteor scatter, we use a system of time slots which works perfect because everyone knows it. How about using a similar scheme for 'special event' slow CW operation, like this (has been suggested before, but I dont remeber who it was)

- DX starts calling at full hour until 5 minutes after the hour (xx:00 ... xx:05)

- Pileup answers from xx:05 to xx:10. 

This 10 minute 'cq' and reply cycle repeats every 10 minutes, until the DX station has one (OR MANY!) callsigns ok and starts to call them by prefix.

A 5 Minute CQ call may be ok for 3 second dot lengths (?), for slower speed another system may be used. The length of the reply interval (here 5 minutes) may be defined by the DX caller as a short letter before final "k", like "e"=5 minutes, "ee"=10 minutes, "eee"=15 minutes.
 "cq ru6la ek"  =    "ru6la listening for 5 minutes now, please come"

The problem with this cycle is, it may be hard to push certain callsigns into a 5 minute slot, but a solution for calls like HB0/DL1SAN/p can surely be found ;-)

An other combination to inform listeners about split operation could also be used, but it would have to be much more precise than the odd "up" on shortwave. 
The letter "s" when sent on the end of the band may be used for "split, listening Seven hundred hertz below my TX frequency".
Not necessary to do this in every over, once per hour would be fine; or if the DX station is as strong as RU6LA/LWZ (and knows about its own strength!) it can give additional information in moderate regular CW. 

In my opinion, saying "forget slow CW stuff, it would have worked in regular CW" doesnt really help - except for a particular BIG station. I very much doubt that regular CW would work into russia for about 95 % of all stations in western europe.  For us "ERP milliwatters", a slow mode like QRSS, JASON or slow variants of PSK is the only chance to work DX as 2-way LF contact (please no comments like "build yourself a better antenna").

73 
 Wolf DL4YHF/DF0WD

P.S. Giulio - Thanks for the contact. Some hours after the QSO, your signal was audible here in northern DL, loc JO42FD .