Mike G3XDV said:

(1) It would be very helpful if a pre-advertised DX station would say in
advance what is the shortest dot length he will use. If Argo is set to a
shorter dot length, then all that will be lost is some sensitivity. If it

is

set to longer, however, all of the information is lost, even though the
station is quite strong.

Yes I agree Argo does need that info for best results. I have found Spectran
easier to tailor to incoming signals of unknown dot length

(2) 137.700 is not the frequency to use for DX. It is the centre of

activity

in Europe and this part of the band is very busy with stations who may not
be aware of the tests.
(3) Split frequency should be used to prevent strong Eu callers swamping

the

wanted DX station. There was quite a lot of Eu activity within 1Hz (!) of
the frequency used by ZL and UA9. I suggest that the alternative slot

close

to 137.77 (as used by KL1X) is used for this type of test. This is only

70Hz

away, but it is far enough unless you have local QRM.

The 137.773 frequency was arrived at after some e-mail discussion and .jpg
images. A conscious decision was made to avoid the centre of EU QRSS
activity.  There is plenty of space up there for QRSS. The bottom of the
band is quite good and was used for VE T/A tests.
I also agree with Mike's remarks about split frequency working. I have been
reluctant to fire up on 137.7 for the reasons he gives.

Regards,
Peter, G3LDO

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