Ev: I Note you are typing this while the 432 mHz Sprint is happening. Your
analysis is a bit flawed. The decline in VHF logs comes from 100% of the ham
population, not just the technicians. My thoughts: Rise in log submissions I
think (well, at least it is for me)is due in part to familiarity with
computer logging, increased use of computers in the shack, and the ease of
e-mailing in your log. If it were possible to analyze, I suggest that the
percentage of VHF logs submitted vs number of participants has increased.
That would mean participation is down on VHF. Why? Many (not me) think its
too much effort for too little return. Last night I spent 4 hours on 432
from a decent location with decent equipment and antenna, and worked 13
stations. There were grid squares I could see, yet I could hear no
one.--Mike, WV2ZOW
-----Original Message-----
From: cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Ev Tupis
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2006 7:56 PM
To: CQ Contest
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Contesting Extinction
Paraphrasing Kenneth's post, "Using the number of log
submissions as the criteria, VHF Contesting is on the
decline, and HF Contesting is on the rise."
> So, I would be inclined to conclude the empircal
> evidence shows that contesting overall is not in
> decline, and in fact DX contesting, and
> expecially DX contesting on CW, has never been more
> popular than it is today.
In the USA, the Amateur Radio population is divided,
in a very lop-sided way:
Total licenses : 655,194
Technician : 320,499
All other Classes : 334,695
Source: http://ah0a.org/FCC/Licenses.html
The increase in HF/CW contest log submissions is
coming from the 1/2 of the Amateur population that has
HF/CW priviledges. The decrease in VHF contest log
submissions is coming from the other 1/2 of the
Amateur population.
Said another way, 1/2 of our population is submitting
more logs, while 1/2 of our population is submitting
fewer logs. I am not certain that log submittal is
the gauge by which we should measure this discussion.
Instead, maybe we, as a community, need to ask
ourselves, "Why is there such a disparity between the
two groups?"
Ev, W2EV
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