Marshall,
A truly epic post - wonderful!
John
On Wed, Sep 25, 2019 at 4:30 PM Marshall-K5QE <k5qe@k5qe.com> wrote:
> Hello to all VHF contesters....Five years ago, we had SSB, CW, JT65b,
> and FSK441. We used JT65b for EME and for long haul schedules(where we
> might try FT8 today). We used FSK441 for meteor scatter and if we were
> very lucky, we got a significant Es opening where SSB or CW would allow
> you to rack up the mults at a great rate.
>
> Life was good and we all contested as hard as we could. Today, I
> believe that we have less activity than before. Whether this is from
> FT8 or not is hard to say. I know that scores are lower today than they
> were during "the good old days". I think that propagation is worse
> today than it was years ago....but that is hard to prove. Here at K5QE,
> we have not had a really good year, propagation-wise, since 2010.
>
> I think that the popularity of FT8 is that you can work stations at DX
> distances that were harder to work using older tools. Stations are
> saying, "OH look, I just worked Idaho on 6M". "WOW, I just worked NY on
> 2M!". So, we have a paradox. We can work stations that we would not
> normally work in the "old days", but scores are lower. How can that be??
>
> There is still plenty of contesting skill and knowledge running around.
> I have heard HFers say, "Well, if you go to 40M too early in the
> contest, you will lose the contest". On the other side of that coin I
> have heard, "Well, if you go to 40M too late in the contest, you will
> lose the contest". I am not a great SSB operator, but I can do about
> 150 contacts per hour on VHF if propagation is good. The really great
> ops that sometimes visit here can do more than 200 contacts per hour.
> What that means is that if you are fooling around with FT8, making 30
> contacts an hour(a fair estimate) while a big Es opening occurs, you
> will lose the contest. On the other hand if you spend loads of time
> calling CQ on SSB, hoping for an opening that never occurs, you will
> lose the contest.
>
> The contest knowledge and skill is in knowing when to be running SSB,
> when to be running MSK144, when to use JT65, and when to use FT8. I can
> almost guarantee that if you blindly park on one of the FT8 "watering
> holes" for the entire contest, you will not do as well as someone that
> uses a more "adventurous" approach.
>
> ASIDE: I have often wondered why stations that have two independent
> VFOs could not have the main one listening for FT8 and the secondary one
> listening for SSB. That way, if a big Es opening occurred, you would
> not miss it. There must be a reason why this is not normally done.
> Every once in a while, you could switch to the secondary VFO and call CQ
> for a minute or two. If nothing, go back to FT8.
>
> Now, if you want to really wax philosophical, you can ask why we do VHF
> contesting at all. We don't "win" anything except bragging rights and a
> certificate on the wall. OH I forgot, we don't even get the certificate
> on the wall any more. In my case, I am sure that I must be a masochist
> and VHF contesting is my punishment. AAAAAAaaaaaaaaaRGH!! What is your
> excuse?? You are permitted to have a good laugh on me.
>
> 73 es GL, Marshall K5QE
>
>
> On 9/25/2019 4:44 PM, Zack Widup wrote:
> > Well, how dead was it 5, 10, 20, 30 years ago?
> >
> > 73, Zack W9SZ
> >
> > On Wed, Sep 25, 2019 at 11:28 AM Herb Krumich via VHFcontesting <
> > vhfcontesting@contesting.com> wrote:
> >
> >> I wonder how dead contesting would be without FT8Just pondering
> >> Herb
> >>
>
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