On Mon, Jan 28, 2008 at 07:20:27PM -0600, Marshall Williams wrote:
> RRR....if we could just get the HFers out of the world of VHF, most
> things would work better.
I am sorry to hear you feel this way - while I learned how to do
contests mostly on the HF bands and I operate more HF events that VHF
ones - I really do enjoy making contacts on the VHF bands and
operating in VHF contests.
Your post makes me (and and am sure many other HF ops) feel very
un-welcome. I feel that I have spent a fair amount of time and effort
over the years to get as many HF contesters as I can to put up
antennas and turn on their radios during the various VHF contests
during the year. We really need as much activity as we can get and
most of these lowly HF contesters have towers strong enough to hold up
a few VHF/UHF antennas. After all, they already know and love the
contest part of the game - so that half of the battle is taken care
of.
> necessarily have to be closely related, since the nature of HF and VHF
> contesting is significantly different.
I have heard this many times before and I have never understood how
there is much of a difference. I have been doing HF and VHF contests
for many years now and I do not view them as being any different. When
I am operating a VHF contest - I approach it just like any HF contest I
have ever done. It seems to work. It would be useful if you or
someone could explain the differences in HF and VHF contests.
> Take a look a the rules for the CQ VHF contest. Basically, anything
> goes. You can look at the Internet(anywhere in the Internet, I
> believe). The prop logger pages, spotting pages, realtime scheduling
> pages, APRS, whatever. You can make schedules on line, you can call
> them on the phone and remind them to get on. You can do whatever it
> takes, BUT you still have to make a VALID contact.
I do not see this in the rules. It is true that I do not see it as
being excluded in the rules. I do see that the rules do say you can
not do most of this as a single op entrant.
> The CQ VHF contest
> is fast becoming one of the Majors precisely because it is not burdened
> down with arcane restrictions that were put there by HF ops that have no
> clue what we do.
Maybe - but I am sure there might be other reasons.
- Good conditions last year or so.
- Only two bands.
- A second summertime contest with e-skip.
> VHF contesting should about making the contact now about HOW you found
> the station on the other end. Either you can work them, or you can't.
> If you can work a station, how you found out that he was there is
> immateriel. If you can't work the station, all the restrictive rules
> are meaningless anyway. Focus on the CONTACTS.....the rest will come
> along nicely.
I think it would be great to focus on making contacts on the radio.
I do not want be a contest to see how much time I need to spend in the
internet chat room getting folks to run skeds with me and telling them
to try again since I did not quite hear them the last time around etc.
I do not want it to be a contest about calling the rovers up on the
phone to find out if they are in the next grid and then telling them
to listen for dahs so we can get the beams lined up all coordinated
over the phone so we can exchange callsigns and grids on the radio.
I do not want it to be a contest about how many DX announcements I can
put out for my own station on the packet systems to get folks to
listen for me and to tell them just where I am calling CQ and what
direction I am beaming.
I want to make contacts on the radio in the radio contest.
I love operating radio contests.
You don't need all of these phone calls, or schedules, or internet chat
rooms to do well in a VHF contest.
You have built up a very fine station - you do not need to be calling
folks on the phone or on the internet to make contacts.
You have the station hardware to make the big scores without calling
the rovers up on the phone during the contest.
--
George Fremin III - K5TR
geoiii@kkn.net
http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr
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