Hi all, seeing that I am part of the "almost zero" activity to his NE that Dave
talks about, I guess I had better chime in here!!
I've been participating in VHF contests for over 60 years.. I started in NH as
a 12 year old in the 50's, moved to PA for 15 years or so (for college but got
"stuck"), then back to New England which ended up being Maine. I love the
challenge of VHF contesting, the competition, and the fact that it's NEVER the
same. After moving to Maine from the Philly area (Pack Rat Land) close to 40
years ago, things changed a bit. I really was at the end of the line of that
Northeast corridor.. helping Dave man the K1WHS multi/multi contest station
(arguably the BEST VHF contest station of all time) in September contests as
well as some 10 band rover efforts for the same cause kept the competitive
juices flowing, but eventually life has a way of catching up to us and I sold a
lot of my gear to help keep my mother-in-law out of the "home" (something I do
NOT regret at all) and now I am kind of starting from scratch again.. Now my
objective is to get on for EVERY VHF contest and give out a "rare" gr
id, say hi to some of the old gang, and most of all have fun. I don't LOVE
FT-8 (FT-4) but I use it, try as much as I can to work stations on SSB and CW
with 50 watts. Actually getting ON is the important part.. I had several 800
mile SSB contacts in the September with my QRP.. Being able to use ON4KST chat
has DEFINITELY helped my cause up here.. In the past I would have called CQ
forever with no response because no one pointed their beams this way.. Now I
can make an announcement and wow! stations! well a few stations, but often
there are surprises because of he always changing propagation and that's what I
have loved about VHF from the start!
Anyway, that brings us up to the present moment. I can say I will try to be on
for every VHF contest that I am equipped for, hopefully at the start. If it's a
sprint, definitely at the start.. But I have no big plan here other than giving
out some points for those who want points and just creating activity. My
experience up here in central Maine in the sprint contests is that things fall
off after 9 and since I have no real agenda here, I'll call it quits if nothing
is happening. I figure a half hour of calling CQ to the SW with an announcement
on the chat page with no response pretty much speaks for itself!!
Oh yeah, I have some QRO projects in the works.. stay tuned everybody!!
that all said,.. see you all on for the 432 Sprint on Oct 7.. I'll be on with
my 50 watts and on ON4KST chat.. woo hoo!
bill, K1DY in Maine FN54JQ
________________________________
From: VHFcontesting <vhfcontesting-bounces+callbill=hotmail.com@contesting.com>
on behalf of David Olean <k1whs@metrocast.net>
Sent: Friday, October 2, 2020 3:12 PM
To: Jay RM <w9rm@calmesapartners.com>; vhfcontesting@contesting.com
<VHFcontesting@contesting.com>; 222 MHz ACTIVITY <222Activity@Groups.io>
Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] An idea for the sprints.
Hi Jay,
i hear you. I live on the edge of the abyss. If I turn my beam NE I
see what you are talking about. There is almost zero activity in that
direction. The only way I can tap into the real activity is to make
ridiculously large antennas to overcome some of my geographic
disadvantage and point towards New York City almost 300 miles away. I
am thankful for being near enough to sample some VHF activity. The bad
news is that the activity that we enjoyed has dropped drastically. My
suggestion was an attempt to build activity on a Sprint night and
encourage people with small stations to try some difficult paths rather
than quit and go elsewhere.
One of the selling points of internet coordination involves improving
activity in the areas beyond the Golden Corridor. If I lived in
Missouri or Nebraska, I would welcome a Sprint night for bringing out
some players, and I would run skeds with any and all takers in hopes of
making a few contacts. I would fill up my four hours if there were
stations to run with. Back a few years ago, it was possible here to
make QSOs on 222 MHz at certain times or days of the week. Now, there is
no opportunity for such contacts. I have to rely on contests or sprints
or set up schedules in advance. I wish things would change for the
better, but I am not optimistic.
One of these days I'll get my 222 antenna tilted up and we can try a sked.
Dave K1WHS
On 10/2/2020 10:46 AM, Jay RM wrote:
> Dave, you need to look at the BIG picture here. Be happy you live in or
> near the "Sprint corridor" and actually have access to enough activity to
> make it through the first hour.
>
> Lamenting about not running the entire 4 hours rings kinda hollow on those
> that don't have enough activity on ANY VHF band - including 2M - to make it
> through the first 10 minutes.
>
> I'm not complaining - it is what it is.
>
> -W9RM
>
> Keith J Morehouse
> Managing Partner
> Calmesa Partners G.P.
> Olathe, CO
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 2, 2020 at 7:24 AM Chet S <chetsubaccount@snet.net> wrote:
>
>> Hi Dave,
>>
>> Many contests suffer the tapering off of activity after a while. Monday
>> night football, super-bowls, debates, Sunday afternoon sweepstakes
>> doldrums, family time, etc.
>> And nowadays we are constantly pressed to add something "new and better"
>> into our lives, and if we take more on, then there is less relax time for
>> our other stuff.
>>
>> Maybe I'm old school but still highly enjoy hearing a weak signal, turning
>> the beam to peak it, and trying to work it. Ahhh, that xyz station
>> improvement I made this summer is working...or not...or pick a beam
>> direction and go fishing to see what you can catch. Make your own decisions
>> when and whether to call toward a population density direction or toward
>> missing grids. SSB vs. FT8. To me that is the name of the game. I do not
>> like the idea of pre-arranged contacts or arranging them in real time, that
>> seems more like DXing than Contesting and not very satisfying.
>>
>> The sprints are a good fun break from the workday, but are 4 hours a bit
>> much? It's supposed to be a sprint not a marathon, so maybe with shorter
>> hours the station activity would be more consistent throughout.
>>
>> 73,
>> Chet, N8RA
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: VHFcontesting <vhfcontesting-bounces+chetsubaccount=
>> snet.net@contesting.com> On Behalf Of David Olean
>> Sent: Thursday, October 1, 2020 5:01 PM
>> To: (Radio) VHF Contesting <VHFcontesting@contesting.com>; 222 MHz
>> ACTIVITY <222Activity@Groups.io>
>> Subject: [VHFcontesting] An idea for the sprints.
>>
>> It isn't much of an idea, more a suggestion, to not abandon the VHF
>> sprints when activity dies down after the initial spurt of activity. I was
>> not a big fan of opening up chat pages for coordination of contacts in VHF
>> contests. My reasoning was that it favored stations that had good internet
>> connectivity and penalized those that did not.
>>
>> That being said, we now have the ability to set up schedules for almost
>> impossible contacts simply by coordinating on internet sites dedicated to
>> such things. So why did everyone bail out after an hour or so on the
>> 222 Sprint? The few diehards left were ones that I had already
>> contacted. It would have been great to try some long haul tropo contacts
>> on CW or even FT4/FT8 with stations that are normally not in range. Trying
>> and failing at a 400+ mile QSO with a 25 watt station or trying a meteor
>> scatter contact is much more agreeable than spending an hour calling CQ and
>> tuning around on a almost empty band with no takers and no results. A few
>> posts for skeds by several of the diehards also went unheeded towards the
>> latter half of the sprint. The last hour, when things die down is the time
>> to experiment and see what your station can do even if it is outside of
>> your comfort zone. The worst that can happen is that the path does not
>> work! Then, there is the problem of which chat page to monitor. Having
>> poor connectivity makes monitoring a number of them impossible for many
>> operators. On a good day, I might be able to cover two chat pages. We
>> should set up a standardization for the sprints so
>> people are all looking at the same place.
>>
>> So next time, think twice about quitting early! Do something exciting
>> instead.
>>
>> 73
>>
>> Dave K1WHS
>>
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