This was my worst contest ever. Everybody must have been on 6 meters.
I believe that the June contest should be 6 meters only, then I won't have
to waste my time listening for nothing on the other bands.
David
KE4YYD
----- Original Message -----
From: "Zack Widup" <w9sz@prairienet.org>
To: <vhfcontesting@contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 5:00 PM
Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] getting rid of 6 meters
>
> When I'm sitting on a hilltop with 10 or more bands, I love to work
> people up the bands. But it can be a trade-off for a big-gun station who
> is running on 6m. Does he quit to work me up the bands for probably more
> points than he's going to get by staying on 6m for the same amount of
> time, but possibly losing his run frequency which could net him more
> points in the long run?
>
> It's a tricky situation. I usually just ask him to meet me on 2m after 6
> dies so we can work up the bands later. And if 6 dies a few minutes later,
> I am probably going to find him on the other bands pretty easily.
>
> Being in the hands of fickle propagation has always been one of the fun
> adventures of VHF!
>
> 73, Zack W9SZ
>
> On Wed, 18 Jun 2008, Joshua M. Arritt wrote:
>
>> Not sure what you really GAIN by removing 6 meters from the pool of
>> bands in the contest as a whole. I can't imagine that a contester would
>> complain about a band being too crowded... in addition to the digital
>> modes, CW is another way to escape the elbow bumping you'll run into on
>> SSB above 50.120... CW filters are wonderfully effective in this
>> instance, which is something HF contesters can attest to. Perhaps an
>> SSB filter too?
>>
>> There was a comment that once 6 opens, all other bands are pointless...
>> I strongly disagree! This is where SO2R (or SOxR, where x=number of
>> bands) skills can make or break your points tally and your sanity.
>> Also, 6 meter Es openings can coincide with tropo on other bands, as
>> mentioned on this distribution a few days ago.
>>
>> There's a balance of discipline and strategy that must be struck to keep
>> 6 meters from being your only band in the contest, if that's a real
>> problem for you. You need discipline to know when and how to pay
>> attention to those other bands and get the needed grids and Qs there,
>> and strategy to know when to kick your discipline in high gear. This is
>> one of the unique challenges of VHF/UHF contesting that you don't get to
>> experience much of on HF. HF is, relatively speaking, very predictable
>> -- the band(s) will open up SOMEWHERE to produce more Qs.... not the
>> case always on V/U contesting. The Magic Band opens and closes all over
>> the place quickly, conditions change very rapidly. So if you're in the
>> points game, you're ahead to dedicate a radio to 6 meters to monitor
>> conditions and quickly pounce on the mults as they fade in and out, and
>> use your multi-band super box or even some cheap eBay FT-290RII (or
>> equivalent -- 100% ham radio = 90% antenna, 9% operator, 1% radio) to
>> cover 2 meters ++ (or as mentioned above, dedicate a radio to each
>> band!).
>>
>> Of course, the ultimate in discipline would be to voluntarily forgo 6
>> meters during a June event -- replace the hole in your rover's op table
>> with a 5.7GHz rig, or something like that. This is for those of us
>> (myself included) who aren't competitive players necessarily, but really
>> just enjoy an opportunity to run to a hilltop, break out the radios and
>> hear the normally dismal bands come to life! It's these types of events
>> that thus re-affirm our investment and commitment to life above 50MHz,
>> in spite of those HF-only guys' looks of confusion when we talk about
>> great openings 500 miles away.
>>
>> Let's examine for a moment the reason 6 is in the pool... as a VHF
>> band. It's crowded because Es works very well on that band. Sometimes,
>> Es works very well on 2 meters... if we get a massive Es cloud that
>> enhances 2 meters all contest long, do we start calls to exclude it from
>> the pool? I wouldn't think so. Maybe if 10 meters were remarkably
>> dull, we could include it in the contest??? Equally unlikely.
>>
>> So it's my humble editorial thesis that the 6 meter band is that 900lb
>> gorilla of VHF contesting. And we already have a contest in August that
>> takes care of the 6 meter problem. When that time comes around, I'll
>> see YOU on 222!
>>
>>
>> 73,
>>
>> - Josh Arritt / KF4YLM
>> EM97ui
>>
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