Ron Klimas WZ1V wrote:
> Fred, Ev, others: my opinion sides with Ev's - maybe from a mountaintop
> multi perspective, the microwave points per QSO seem inflated. But ask a
> single-op in an average QTH trying to justify investing more in the upper
> bands. Or a Rover. Or a LM team thinking about going Unlimited. If you
> don't keep an incentive for most operators to get on the microwaves, they
> won't - and if you think microwave activity is low now...
> -73, Ron WZ1V FN31
The opposite holds true also, if enough microwave activity is happening
in an area, but not enough general V/U activity to keep the band busy
(see my comments about the ragchewing... we took that discussion
off-list and agreed that what we typically hear out here isn't a
"ragchew" per se, but that we have heard people with serious ragchews
going on on the calling frequency... our's are usually more of a "hey
how are you?! Haven't seen you all year... okay catch you later!" more
than a traditional "ragchew") any new folks with just V/U gear might
find the contest utterly boring.
People with V/U-only (and maybe 6m) radios aren't going to bother to
participate after their first year if all they hear is a rapid-fire
contact exchange with about ten stations and then, "Do you have other
bands?" and then they're ignored -- whenever they put out a CQ.
:-)
Of course, any new folks hooked by the contesting bug would just be
inspired to put those bands on the air for the next year -- but I bet
there's probably lots of operators who have shown up, realized they were
"out-classed", didn't have anything other than V/U and maybe 6m, and
definitely had no idea how much we all appreciated them being there for
the V/U Q's (especially from rare grids), and never came back. We bored
them out of their skulls by working them and moving on.
Out here where activity is lower, a friendly "It's really nice to hear
you on!" and maybe a follow-up e-mail after the contest to get them
"plugged in" with the local contesters is probably key to future
activity from new operators. (In highly populated areas, there's enough
continuous V/U activity that the new folks are probably never bored if
they have at least a "decent" receive capability and mediocre antennas
to start with.)
Around here, a new callsign elicits a flurry of activity for about 10
minutes while all the "regulars" work 'em, then they get shuffled up to
UHF (if they started on 6m or VHF) and then there's a good chance
they'll be completely ignored after that... not always a good
introduction to contesting...
... or maybe it is. ;-)
Nate WY0X
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