After returning from a week long trip, It was nice to see such good ideas
and comments from all so just had to add a few cents worth.
Classify me as an avid "casual" VHF contester, single band so I can only
speak from a 2m perspective. I always work the Jan VHF contest, submit logs
most of the time, and at least participate in the June and Sept contests as
well as the sprint. I have had many "lost voice" Mondays after calling CQ
CQ CQ CONTEST all weekend (a voice keyer has eliminated that problem).
Okay, now my two cents. The contest awards those with the highest scores,
both Q's and Multipliers.....no surprise. So why is everyone so taken back
with lower activity levels (whether real or perceived)? Follow me with
this;
1) The casual op will NEVER be in the top ten.
2) The casual op, once excited about working a big gun in a distant grid,
after the second year hears the same big guns in the same grids......the
thrill is gone.
3) The 2m band is dead as a door nail except at contest time. The casual
guy/gal long ago tired of calling CQ and hearing nothing but noise from the
speaker. With 365 days in a year, the contests add up to what, 8 or ten
days total. Say 15 days for giggles, that means the band is dead for 350
days. There is no way to compare the HF bands to VHF and higher bands. Go
on 80, or 40, or 20, or 10m, call CQ, then go to 2m, call CQ.....which band
do ya think won't be hosting a QSO ??
4) 2m seems to more and more become the "sked" band. Many hard contesters
conglomerate to a specific frequency, "check in" and toggle back and forth
until they have worked each other on all bands, then they disappear. The
casual op doesn't spin the dial long enough up and down the band to catch
these quick QSY's.
5) You think that with the sales of HF/VHF/UHF rigs there should be more
activity, not true. Again look at 2m, a dead band, if the rig has UHF why
bother when you can't even make a single contact on VHF. Why would a
multi-band wonder rig owner think the activity level is any better at UHF ?
6) UHF and above is for the big gun or die hard contester. How many Top Ten
finishers run only 2 or 3 bands and are SOLP ??
As a casual contester I can tell you that it gets pretty boring to be
calling CQ all weekend and seldom break the 100 Q level. I believe I have a
pretty good set-up on 2m, 17 elements at 65', 1-1/4" hardline, SSB mast
mounted pre-amp, 300w out. I can work out 250 miles most any day of the
week (except to the south, darn it), BUT at contest time getting Q's is
fruitless. The ONLY scoring chance I have is in multipliers, that's what
keeps me going, and I'm pretty competitive. If I hear em, I can damn sure
work em. For me its an art to know when to "run" or "hunt-n-peck".
Maybe instead of trying to change the contest we should try to add some
other non-contest associated awards to draw the casual ops into the contest.
Maybe a graduated worked-all states concept with a "seal" or "ribbon" for
each state. Maybe the same for VUCC, a graduated level for working 25
grids, 50, 75, not just starting at 100. Maybe a graduated county based
award........Heck, something that gives the casual op a chance for some
wallpaper and something that they can build on where they need the help of a
contest to get ahead. That's the reason the casual op works the HF
contests, cause he has a chance to get ahead on some HF award. Heck, WAC ,
WAS just as an example are pretty easy as single band awards with increased
difficulty as you try for the 5 banders. Does that level of variety exist
for the VHF/UHF/SHF bands ?
Finally, I agree with other comments that QST should post full contest
results in print. I enjoy seeing my call in print, even if I only made a
dozen Q's. You loose the casual op's skimming through QST and seeing the
detailed results, they won't bother to dig into the annuls of the website,
its too time consuming. Its funny that when I first submitted for a VHF
contest it was because I saw that others were submitting with low scores and
that I could do better, not for an award but more of a rivalry thing. I
like the website coverage and enjoy digging into the specifics, but I'm not
who needs to be attracted. I'm not bashing, but I do believe the ARRL via
the magazine can do more to dangle carrots for increased participation.
Maybe a quarterly special issue with all the results or something like that.
Brad, N8GLS
|