I would tread lightly on this idea, and stop to really think through the likely
operator participation behaviors that it would induce. It strikes me as
something that could have the undesired side effect of actually diluting the
participation levels in the major VHF contests on 6M and up.
Many of the various rules and category changes over the years were primarily
designed to "lower the barriers" for participation as an effort to entice new
operators to get on VHF contests. But in reality, they so far seem to all have
had some pretty undesirable side effects. And in many cases I think that they
have actually reduced the number of bands being used, and reduced power levels
used by participants in VHF contests. Or to put it another way, each of those
changes often took away incentive for building bigger gun stations with lots of
bands, in the end that hurts everyone. Some examples I can think of:
1. ARRL splitting SO into SOLP and SOHP - side effect was that many stations
that were building up stations towards higher levels of power on 6M and up
decided not to (I'll even admit to being guilty of doing that myself).
2. ARRL creating Limited Multi-Op - side effect was multi ops who previously
worked on including bands above 432, dropped all of them (I still think Limited
MO should limit the number of operators, not bands).
3. I get the impression that Limit Rover category may have done a similar thing
to the number of bands that rovers try to equip for.
4. SO3B - side effect, a disturbing number of former SOLPs have now downshifted
to SO3B, and have no motivation or desire to add 222, or any of the higher
bands above 432 for that matter.
Another pattern that I think has gotten more common over the last 10 years or
so is that the major all band ARRL VHF contests are increasingly evolving into
almost 6M only events.
My fear of having a 10 & 6M contest is that it will make many to decide to skip
one or more of the exiting all band VHF contests and only focus on 10 and 6
contesting. I think CQ WW VHF being 6 & 2 only event has already had that kind
of impact on the ARRL UHF contest. There is a saturation factor for the number
of contests that people can take out time to participate in.
When it is all said and done, 6M is already more like HF than V/UHF as far
people getting on and actually operating. 6M is actually a fairly ho-hum band
for participation until there is some Es, then it becomes just like 10M. So I
struggle to see how mixing 10 and 6 in a contest will eventually lead to more
participation on 2M and up. It is the 2M band and up where we truly need more
operators.
Duane
N9DG
-----Original Message-----
From: Les Rayburn <les@highnoonfilm.com>
To: VHF Contesting Reflector <vhfcontesting@contesting.com>;
N1LF Radio <n1lf@highnoonfilm.com>
Sent: Thu, Sep 4, 2014 12:47 am
Subject: [VHFcontesting] ARRL Proposal for a combined 10
Meter & 6 Meter Contest
A few weeks ago, Steve N2CEI posted an update from ARRL HQ
that
authorized the appointment of an-hoc committee related to
VHF
contesting. Within that posting, he mentioned a desire from
ARRL HQ
staff to enhance operation on the 6 & 10 Meter band that
included the
following:
*/PSC requested that headquarters staff explores
opportunities to
emphasize more activity of the 6 and 10 meters bands. Ideas
included a
combined 6- and 10-meter contest, a 10 meter grid square
award, and
emphasis on portable operations. /*
I'm interested in hearing what VHF contest operators think
about the
possibility of a combined 10 & 6 Contest? During sunspot
nulls (or even
the current maximum) 10 Meters often performs more like a
VHF band than
an HF band--so I think the grouping is pretty natural. The
CQ VHF
contest which focus only on 6 & 2 Meters as long been a
favorite of mine
due to the simplicity of the format. I suspect that a 6
& 10 contest
could have the same appeal.
A 10 Meter grid award also makes a lot of sense to me. It
might
encourage even more FFMA style expeditions.
73,
Les Rayburn, N1LF
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