144 MHz SSB MS operating procedure

LA0BY, last updated 20.07.2000

SSB is a very efficient mode for MS, provided you pick a shower that produces rather long and frequent reflections. By far the best showers for SSB are the Perseids and the Leonids.

It is very common to hear somebody calling CQ by only saying his call for 1 minute without breaking. How shall this poor guy ever make single burst QSOs? For some stations it is also common to not repeat the callsign of the station they are calling, not to talk about the necessity of final RRR...

Further clarification and examples regarding the SSB procedure: If you call CQ, please say "CQ UA3XYZ CQ UA3XYZ ... CQ UA3XYZ break" and then you listen for 1-2 seconds before yo continue your CQ call. Breaks should be made at least every 15 seconds within the own TX period (1 minute). Do never call continuously for 1 minute without break, even not when there are poor reflections (this mistake is sometimes made even by very experienced operators). A shower may produce isolated long reflections.

And then you listen for 1 minute on your frequency. You should avoid calling more than 1 minute, or violating the sequence in general. This will confuse others because they do not know in which period you are listening. If you get called, either during the break in your own TX period or in your RX period, and e.g. receive "UA3XYZ LA0BY 38 38 break" please reply with "LA0BY UA3XYZ R49 R49 break". Do NOT only give your callsign and report, or just the report. If the burst is still good and I receive both calls and the roger-report, I will reply with "RRRR break". If you receive this, the QSO is complete! But in order to avoid any doubts, you should give the final confirmation yourself, for example by transmitting "RRR break" or "RR 73 break" or "RRR CQ UA3XYZ".