Hi Rick,
I've been meaning to grab a copy of the proceedings from that, if only for
the talks on light contacts.
I agree that 222 FM is the most productive of the FM bands normally, for a
while K1SIG only had FM for 222 and we'd typically get a handful of
contacts. 2m FM was a great win for us this past time out, but we parked
ourselves in HT central at the ARRL convention. It took a little coaching,
but fortunately if we could hear them they were in the same grid as us so
it made it easy. I've found that in SOTA and VHF contesting that people are
willing to hand out contacts readily, even if they don't really know what's
going on.
Tilting beams is an interesting idea, but dangerous. If you're talking to
another station that does it, and you're both tilted the same 45 degrees
you're suddenly cross-polarized.
We're still going to carry the h-pol beams for sideband and CW, it's more
of a matter of whether we'd get anything from carrying a dedicated FM beam
to make it worth the effort, or if we'd lose out on the
contacts-of-convenience off the edges of the beams.
73,
Sean WA1TE
On Wed, Nov 29, 2017 at 7:15 PM Rick R <rick1ds@hotmail.com> wrote:
> There was an excellent presentation on use of FM in VHF Contesting at the
> Mid-Atlantic States VHF Conference in October. The presenter operated only
> 4 band FM from his vehicle parked on a high spot (not roving) using mostly
> vertical short beams, although they were tilted to almost 45 degrees to be
> able to have gain to work the horiz pol guys. He did nicely, and reminded
> us that many folks who may respond to a CQ on FM simplex have no idea what
> VHF Contesting is about and they do not necessarily know what a grid square
> is or which one they are in and need some assistance in getting to the
> proper exchange. However, there are hams who are more than happy to
> participate.
>
> My personal experience has been that 223.5FM is the most productive as
> many folks have something on 222FM if not on SSB/CW. I use a 5/8 whip on my
> rover van for both 223.5 and 146.52/55/58. On occasion, I can work folks
> with a multi-band walkie including 446.000, after an initial QSO on 146.
> Rick, K1DS
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