I know a lot of "serious" VHF contest stations, especially the multi-ops, make skeds before the contest. Some of them make a lot of skeds. Am I the only one who finds this somewhat distasteful? This
Great topic, Kenneth. I have been active with a few large-scale multi-op VHF operations, namely K3MTK (the old W3BBS group), K1TR/1, K1TR/3, and W2SZ (once). I've also done some single-op VHF contes
Gee Ken, I've been making skeds before the contest for some forty years now, and never entered a contact in the log that I didn't think was legitimate. What about during the contest, moving a statio
What would be interesting to know is what the average success rate is with regard to VHF skeds. My success rate here has been dismal. Rarely did any of them work out...the propagation just wasn't the
I guess I don't understand what the difference is between making skeds during the contest using non-amateur means, and making them before the contest using non-amateur means. To me, the contest star
My experiences have been similar, so I almost never make skeds for that reason. I've also had rather limited success catching rovers at their previously announced times for the more distant grids. It
And that's very admirable. And really in the spirit of what contests were meant to be. And should be. Believe me, I'm no major champion of skeds. I've just seen skeds as both a competitive edge, whet
True, but one thing you don't have too much of on VHF is the big time spotting on the clusters that you have on HF. Sorta like the contest where ZF2MM was posted a hundred times or so. That would see
Totally agree Frank. However, I would like to point out that using cluster information puts you in a different category in HF contests. Using skeds on VHF doesn't. Tree
True, but it doesn't put in in a different category on HF if a zillion of my friends spot me, only if I look at who else is being spotted. If I have a run going and am so busy because others have spo
Look at the activity level differences in those contests. On HF, unless it is a single band contest, or I am a single band entry, I can get on and make plenty of QSOs any time of day or night on at l
Well - as you have demonstrated, people that have this happen (for whatever reason), will be talked about after the contest. The specific case you cite is interesting as the person who owns the stat
This is a common misconception. You do not lose points for "unique" QSOs in the Sweepstakes. The log checking software identifies them for you, and puts them in your UBN report (for _your_ education
I have decided that I dont want to make skeds before the contest. It never felt right to me to make skeds and I do not think I have made a sked for a VHF contest is over 3 or more years and before th
Here is my SS SSB report: http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr/logs/logcheck/k5tr_2001_ssb_ss_log_check_report.html As I understand it the ARRL has started checking VHF contest logs in the last year or two so pe
I guess my concern with skeds made before the contest is that you have done a lot of work to get a lot of information "pre-loaded." You will already know the other station's callsign, grid square, fr
Hi all, Well, this is TRUE! But the same holds for moving stations up the band - a common practice on VHF that NEVER occurs on HF - , and the signals often get WEAKER as one QSY's up, and often the
Moving stations (especially multipliers) from one band to another happens all the time in HF contests. Except that the time and effort to figure out who the station is and where they are and where th
I move stations to diffrent HF bands all the time. I do not see how "weak signals" on VHF are any diffrent than weak signals are on HF or any other band. I work _tons_ of very very weak guys on HF al