ARRL January VHF Contest
Call: K2DRH
Operator(s): K2DRH
Station: K2DRH
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: EN41 IL
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 127 78
2: 96 42
222: 38 24
432: 55 24
903: 9 8
1.2: 15 11
2.3: 0 0
3.4: 2 2
5.7:
10G:
24G:
-------------------
Total: 342 189 Total Score = 98,469
Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
Comments:
This was really slow and painful .. even more so then usual. Participation was
way down this year. Conditions were also pretty awful. QSB on all bands was the
worst I've seen since moving to this QTH. WQ0P was nonexistent on 1296 for over
15 minutes before he suddenly popped up out of the hiss. With a few exceptions
the rovers all stayed home despite the warm weather (in all fairness it was
bitterly cold for at least 15 days leading up to the contest making it difficult
to prepare). Three out of the 4 rovers I worked were so far away they were
difficult to work on many bands (or just don't carry them anymore). I only came
across one station that had a functional 2.4GHZ and he was too far away to work
for the conditions!
Between NAQP settling in on top of the Jan VHF Test a few years back and the
expansion of the football season with playoffs, participation keeps dwindling.
But by my analysis the sudden popularity of MSK and FT8 does us no real favors
either. Now instead of finding stations that call CQ on 2M or 6M SSB there are
hardly any there at all (forget CW!). When I call CQ I get much fewer replies,
if any. Its disheartening to see no signals at all on 6M or 2M SSB/CW but then
look and see all the locals with small to moderate stations are piled up on 6M
jamming up MSK and FT8 calling CQ mostly to no avail or (I assume) waiting to
pounce. They take a long time to complete if they do, and few are using the
ability to call CQ then shift the QSO to another frequency to lessen the
congestion. Most of them have don't have the capability to look at the CW/SSB,
FT8 and MSK144 segments all at once like I do with the Flex.
So rather than call CQ to no replies I'm forced to work them on digital when I
see a grid I need or a station I need to run other bands (if I can even remember
they have other bands LOL). It's SO much easier just to ask everyone I work on
SSB and then coordinate a QSY freq (most don't seem to copy or send CW well
enough and that is equally frustrating). Now instead of 30 seconds to work them
and coordinate a QSY to the 2,3 or maybe 4 other bands they have, I have to call
one station on 6M digital wait the minute or three for them to finish up then
waste another minute or three asking them to QSY to 2M in TX5 and maybe another
minute waiting for them to figure out how to reply back. And its not easy to
direct a QSY request to a particular station and still include Call,
"QSY" and a frequency inside the 13 character limit (how I would QSY
WA#ZZZ/R I have no clue LOL). Many fail open and don't reply at all. Nor can I
quickly work a few at the same time while stacking up 2 or 3 stations in the
same direction to QSY with me for a quick band run with all of them.
And get a Rover on 50260 and watch the chaos! Due to the message length
constraints signing a compound call like you are obliged to do by the rules
where it cannot have the directed call of the other station or the /R in some TX
messages due to length constraints. This makes everyone's auto sequencing that
picks up the rover's message (whether they are working him or not) advance. That
was a total zoo and got some really pissed off until the rover relocated his QSO
freq off the call! This needs to be fixed, but due to the software constraints
I doubt there is any easy way short of doing what that rover did and getting off
the call. Also the LIDs who insist on NOT running contest mode on FT8 and then
fail open when you reply to them and it looks "funky". No clue why
they won't run contest mode during a contest! Fer cripes sakes if you call or
reply to a CQ in a contest you don't expect to ragchew, so why do you insist on
the equivalent in digital!
When fsk-441 was province of the hard core Ms players and contesters we made a
lot of pre contest skeds around the overnight dead time when most less committed
stations were not on. It was a way of adding extra mults especially on 2M.
Random CQing during a contest was done by those with dedicated 6M stations who
could actually hear something and they almost always asked for replies off the
call frequency to keep things clear. Now thanks to all the glowing articles in
the ham magazines, CQing on digital is done by anyone with a dipole and HF rig
that includes 6M as a deaf afterthought. They are difficult to work, requiring
multiple sequences for them to hear you. Sequence is arbitrary, and hardly
anyone directs their CQ to QSY off the call for the QSO. This causes a lot of
local congestion, and my large antenna array sees the endless repeats that go
by. Normally I just stand by and let them finish, but I just can't afford to be
that polite during a contest. Digital is really amazing, but the fact remains
that you still have to have a decent station to be consistently successful!
While its still true that you can add mults (especially after the
"casual" ops have gone to bed), its a lot harder now to get anyone to
sked ahead much less attract their attention on PJ or ON4KST when a full screen
of messages flies by every minute. I also watch in frustration as the more
capable stations get tied up in endless sked requests from much less capable
stations that take forever to work, knowing that I can work them 1-2-3 when I
can finally get their attention. Strategically it makes more sense to sked with
capable stations in grids you need than to take random requests from all comers.
I had one guy try to set me up with a 1300 mile 2M sked when he had a station
that had maybe a 10% chance of actually spanning that distance with me. At least
after it gets into the overnight time the real players can work each other but
it sure cuts into sleep time for single ops
Worse most smaller stations, portables and rovers don't have the same reach on
6M they do on 2M were most of the band coordination occurs; few have 6M and 432
or the microwaves without having 2M. Its not as easy to put a high gain 6M yagi
up high enough where it reach can out 200 miles on tropo or more like a
relatively small 2M yagi will. Plus 6M in general does not propagate as well on
tropo scatter or ducting like 2M will. So if everyone is CQing or laying in wait
on 6M digital they are severely limiting everyone's efforts to reach out on the
other VHF bands. Extending the reach of a small station with Ms is fine but its
not where everyone should congregate waiting for something to happen and the
current message limits are not conducive to multiple band runs.
73 de Bob
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