My good fiend Pierre, ZS6A brought “Pileup runner” in to the limelight just the other day on the Zone 38 Facebook group. Pileup runner is very similar to but more sophisticated than, it’s cousin “Morse runner”. Pileup runner brings modern technology to the ham operator on a computer that most will never experience. SDR type technologies integrated with computer technologies. Pileup runner can be downloaded from http://www.dxatlas.com/PileupRunner/
Pileup runner gives the CW enthusiast an opportunity to VERY REALISTICALLY take part as the centre of attraction in a pileup. Different operator responses will be encountered some at high speed and some not. You have the choice of moving up and down a few kHz above your “transmit frequency” and the ability to control the width of your receive filter.
A 15 minute test or real exercise can be taken and your results uploaded to a website to see where you stand in comparison to others, not a race, a measurement for self improvement. I compare it to the running activities I take part in. I take part not to win but simply to be part of a group of runners, whether I come last or not has no consequence. Many (most) people do not run …. Much the same with taking part in measuring yourself against others in the Pileup runner’s statistics. Not all hams do CW ……
The majority of us will never see a DXPedition but a few of us may from time to time experience our own little pileup, whether it be during a contest or from some “exotic” location that hams may want to work. Pileup runner will prepare us for such situations. It’s fun too and an excellent way to hone our CW skills.
CW is the RaDAR operators best friend – a digital mode decodeable by the human brain.
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