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DX contact survey

whiteastro

whiteastro

Sr. Member
Feb 22, 2019
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While I am fairly new to talking DX and sometimes get frustrated with calling out and not getting answered it make me wonder if I am expecting too much from my equipment and it might just be the nature of the beast I'm dealing with. So it brings up the question to the experienced DXers. What would you say is a reasonable percentage of unanswered calls VS answered calls, and I know you have a lot of different equipment to take into consideration ? Just thinking I might be expecting too much with the Way The Signal Flys !
 

well it kind of depends on a few things.

are you calling out and answering calls on a crowded channel like 38LSB?

if so, then you can be sure that for every person you hear booming through your radio, there are 10-100 people in your regional area that are also trying to answer that person.
you won't hear any of these people because they are not in your skip zone.
they are too far from you to hear, but too close for your signal to hop to them.

if you are operating at a level of 50 watts or less, and your antenna is just a vertical on a 20 foot mast, then your chances of being the one who gets their numbers called out by the DX station are not going to be great.

people tend to answer the person who comes into their radio the strongest because that person is better equipped to carry on a full QSO than someone who can be heard but keeps getting covered up by other stations trying to jump in.

get a station that can do 400 watts PEP and get the base of your antenna up to the 50 foot level and everything changes.

with a modest station and a crowded channel, your best bet is to only try to answer stations that hit you at like +30 or "in the red" on your meter.
chances are you will hit them with about the same signal strength.

if you are sitting on an empty channel calling CQ, then you just have to be patient and keep on calling because eventually someone will be spinning the dial past you and we all love to make contacts on empty channels.

hope this helps.
LC
 
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Your antenna plays a major role, huge role! Good antenna and good low loss coax and you're golden even with little power.

My station, running barefoot radios and talk all over the country. I mainly run the quad 5N2 or quad 6 and no box behind them. Silver rod antenna at about 25 ft and it just works.

That little McKinley you're using should do pretty good paired with a good antenna.
 
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Most of my problem with the base station is I'm in a deep narrow valley and have too many home projects that take care of my cash. Plus I have neighbors that like to complain about their neighbors so I have to not get real aggressive with antenna systems. Sometimes a man could create his own problems. You know what they say about Small Towns. Jealousy runs Rampped !
 
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whiteastro said:
Most of my problem with the base station is I'm in a deep narrow valley and have too many home projects that take care of my cash. Plus I have neighbors that like to complain about their neighbors so I have to not get real aggressive with antenna systems. Sometimes a man could create his own problems. You know what they say about Small Towns. Jealousy runs Rampped !
Click to expand...

Well, if you have no HOA to contend with, why worry about the neighbors? It's none of their business what you do. Get a 50' or 60' tower and either a beam, or a nice ground plane to work with.
 
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I operate nothing but stock, legal CB gear. The comments made above give good guidance. Let me add that the conductivity of the ground below you can't be overlooked.

I've got a small little "pocket cruiser" boat that I like to stay out on 2 or 3 nights at a time. My portable rig that I hook up out there is a 102" stainless steel whip on a rail mount and a 102" long 1/4" aluminum pole as my counterpoise. My radio is a Cherokee AH 100 SSB walkie talkie that puts out under 10 watts on SSB. The contacts made by my 1/4 wave "Marconi" sitting 7' above the salt water are off the charts. Similarly, my A99 barely 9' off the ground but only about 12' from the (salt) water makes plenty of DX contacts on CB.

Height, soil conductivity, output: everything contributes to your success.
 
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The20poundhammer said:
Several stations I worked last weekend in Europe were running pretty simple set ups. A vertical antenna such as an A99 or Sirio stuff or other verticals. Most were just running 100 watts or so. It's all about conditions where your at.
Click to expand...
this, i saw a clip of a dutch man in his car with a basic sb with sirio antenna having short contact with a guy in the usa. very short confirmed respons and then the signal faded.
 
When the 11 year sunspot cycle is high like it is right now, you can make VERY long distance contacts with just a basic CB and antenna setup. 5 years from now, when the cycle is low again, it will take a much better radio, more power, and a bigger & higher antenna to make any long distance contacts at all. That's just the way it works.
Ground conductivity has no effect at all on the 11 meter band, and neither does the weather. It's all about the ionosphere, the sunspot cycle, and the lack of any buildings/hills/mountains blocking the horizon......
 
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