Hi Joel: It was great to hear you on,
wish I could have participated more.
Did work a few of the old gang,
Art K1BX was on from K1WHS, also
WA1T was also on from home in FN43.
And yeah FT8 sure has changed the game !
-73 Ron WZ1V
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joel Harrison" <w5zn@w5zn.org>
To: "VHF Contesting" <vhfcontesting@contesting.com>
Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2018 22:08:40 -0500
Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] FT8 and the ARRL June VHF Contest
> As a Single Op, my observation is in line with Marshall's.
I ran an SO2R set up on 6 meters with one radio dedicated to FT-8 on 50.313.
73 Joel W5ZN
> Hello to all the VHF contesters who ran the June contest.
>
> Due to all the hype concerning FT8, we decided this year to add a
> completely independent 6M station just to monitor FT8. The station has
> a 6M5X for the antenna and a small SSPA. The new station was
> interlocked with the main 6M run station to keep one station from
> blowing out the other.
>
> When the contest began, there was no Es on 6M, so naturally we went to
> 50.313 looking for FT8 contacts. There were 6-8 traces visible. Some
> were weak and some were really strong. So, we started trying to work
> them.
>
> The results were terribly frustrating. We tried running S&P by keeping
> our TX fixed on 1500 or 1200(or whatever) and calling stations that were
> calling CQ. Many would not come back to us unless we got right on their
> frequency. Apparently, these ops did not realize that it is possible to
> work just fine with our audio on 1500 and theirs on 1244. It is sort of
> a "split operation", but it works very well and you can hold your CQ
> frequency.
>
> A goodly number were still not using the "NA Contest Mode", so you could
> not complete with them in any normal way. The best we could do was to
> stop using the contest mode(CM) long enough to complete with them.
> Sometimes, this was successful, sometimes not. Remember that if one
> station is in the CM and the other one is not, the messages do not
> proceed properly. Using the CM is critical.
>
> We could tell that this was not a recipe for success, so we started
> calling CQ ourselves, keeping our TX audio fixed at 1500. We worked
> stations from all over the waterfall, but it was slow going. We often
> were called by a station with a decent signal, but when we went right
> back to them, they disappeared and were never seen again. This wasted a
> lot of time. Many of those folks that answered our CQ were not in the
> CM, so, it was very hard to get their grid as many of them called using
> Tx2(K5QE K2XXX -02) rather than Tx1 which has the grid.
>
> Whenever our op could see that FT8 signals were really strong, he would
> jump to SSB and work whatever he could. On Sat, about half of our 6M
> contacts(about 225) and half of our grids(about 60) were made on SSB.
> If the Es died out, he would go back to FT8.
>
> At the end of Sat night, we had more contacts on 2M than we had on 6M.
> This is pretty ridiculous in June. Our score was about 28K. It was
> terribly frustrating and my stress level was a bit high.
>
> On Sunday, we found the Es opening at about 8AM, maybe a bit earlier.
> Signals were strong and we began running hard. Several of the top ops
> had to go home, because they had to work on Monday. So, I had to man
> the 6M station from about Noon to 9PM. I was running 100-120 per hour
> for several hours, which later fell back to about 60 per hour later in
> the evening. At the end, we had 202 grids and 980+ contacts on 6M. Our
> score was now 400K+ and less stress on me....HI.
>
> The bottom line is that FT8 performed about as I feared it would. The
> large number of newbies and / or HFers that insist on running without
> the contest mode hurt the number of contacts that we were able to make
> and really hurt the rate. Ditto the folks that think you have to be
> right on their frequency. All this can be fixed with some education and
> some (gentle?) persuasion. We somehow have to get these folks to
> understand that in the VHF world, we need GRIDS, most especially in a
> contest, where the grid is the exchange. I DON'T CARE HOW THEY DO IT ON
> HF!! As VHFers, I believe that we should use the CM at all times.
> Maybe folks would see how much better it is.
>
> RECOMMENDATIONS:
>
> 1. Use SSB or CW whenever signals are up. It is MUCH faster and you
> will work more contacts with more grids. I had several hours with a
> rate above 100 per hour. You just cannot do this with FT8 as the
> absolute maximum number of contacts is 60 per hour...and in practice,
> you cannot do that. It did not happen in this contest, but I have seen
> one of our top ops run over 200 contacts in an hour.
>
> 2. Use the "NA Contest Mode" in contests. I believe we should use it
> at all times, just so the newbies and HFers will see that rather than
> the "funny little numbers".
>
> 3. Stations calling CQ should pick an audio frequency and stay there.
> Work S&P stations anywhere in the waterfall. This alone will help a lot.
>
> 4. Don't make one call and then disappear. Obviously, some contacts
> will fail for whatever reason(band drops, amp blows up, or something
> like that), but you will work a lot more if you stick with it.
>
> FINAL THOUGHTS:
>
> I think that with some education and some practice, FT8 can work a lot
> of stuff whenever Es is NOT happening. It is a useful tool to be added
> to the contesting toolbox. We just need to eliminate the bad operating
> practices so that everyone can maximize their contacts....big stations
> and small ones alike.
>
> I am most interested in how others found FT8 in this contest. Was it
> better or worse than what I have described above? If you like my
> recommendations, then promote them. If not, please let me know how we
> can all do better. I always appreciate intelligent ideas and
> discussion. Flames go directly to the bit bucket--they will not pass GO
> and will not collect $200.
>
> 73 Marshall K5QE
> k5qe@k5qe.com
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