Digital BW, The Print

Small question for QTR curve design experts...

I'm starting to get some very good results now out of QTR (on a 1280
with UT2 inks), but am a bit stuck on one issue: the density difference
between 100% black and 99% black is much too large, so that, if an image
contains a large area of 100% and an adjacent area of 99%, the edge
between them is clearly visible and the 99% region looks dark gray
rather than nearly black.

The problem occurs both with the provided 1280 UT2 curve (the carbon
curve for HPR paper, FWIW) and with a modified version of the same curve
that I linearized myself using the eye-one procedure described in the
documentation.  In a different experiment, I was able to get the black
values closer together by cranking up the GRAY_SHADOW parameter, but
just doing this, of course, makes the whole print very dark.  

What's the right approach to this issue?

Many thanks,

    - Benjamin Pierce
      http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/photos