In 2010, pre FT8, there were 1202 logs submitted in the ARRL June VHF contest.
in 2014 there were 1043.
in 2020, lots of FT* and there were over 2000 logs submitted. While that may
have been skewed by the pandemic, 2021 had 1589 logs submitted
Phil K3UA's 2021 results article at
https://contests.arrl.org/ContestResults/2021/Jun-VHF-2021-FinalFullResults.pdf
has a chart that shows the steady growth of logs in the June VHF test once FT8
came on the scene.
Change, yes - but growth in participants as part of that change. Some portion
of those new ops may take a shot at other modes some day.
In 2017 or so I gave a talk at Xenia Hamvention recommending that FT8 have
separate contests vs.be mixed in and some of that has happened - and those ARRL
and CQ WW digi contests have had huge participation. That thrill of contesting
to those FT8 ops entering their first contest may spill over intothe other "OG"
contests in SSB and CW modes. If some of them tryout Sweepstakes, I'll bet well
see an uptick in CKs that start with 0, 1 or 2.
73 John K3TN
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