Hello All....As you probably know, I have a large VHF contest station in
East Texas, outside Hemphill. I have operated every VHF contest since
2004, as well as all the CQ WW VHF contests. I have watched VHF
contesting change over the years, so I feel qualified to make a few
observations.
ASIDE: When I type FT8, I mean FT8 and FT4, but NOT MSK144, JT65, or Q65.
It is somewhat true that "VHF contests have now evolved into mostly 50-
and 144-MHz FT8 contests with very little SSB/CW activity nor much
activity on the higher bands". I disagree with the above about the
activity on the higher bands. We have NEVER had much activity on the
higher bands. In this last contest, we actually had a much better
activity on 222 than we normally have. 432 was pretty flat.
Possible suggestions: 1)Do nothing. Allow the contests to stay as they
are now. This will be the bane(possibly the death) of SSB. CW is
already essentially dead. Right now, for the Rookies and the HFers, you
cannot "pry FT8 from their cold dead fingers". These folks know that
they are making contacts that they could not make via SSB or CW, even if
the rate is poor. They just won't change. If the rule makers try to
push them away from FT8, they will just quit and we will lose those
operators from VHF in general and VHF contesting in particular.
2)Try some kind of a scheme where FT8 counts for 1 point, SSB/CW counts
for 2 points. The band multiplier would remain. So a 2M QSO on SSB
would be worth 2 points, and 222 contact on SSB would be worth 4
points(June and Sept). I really abhor these kinds of schemes. It would
be logging nightmare AND you would have folks working on FT8 and then
trying to get another contact on SSB to increase their points. The idea
of contesting is to work someone new, not to go back and work the same
guy again. I really hate the whole idea here.
3)Change the June contest to prohibit FT8 and FT4 but NOT to prohibit
MSK144 or JT65. As you know, MSK144 is used for meteor scatter and JT65
is used (primarily) for EME. Both of these are weak signal modes that
take significant time to make a contact. They have always been
extremely useful late at night when the bands are just dead to all other
modes. IF a blanket ban on digital contacts were enacted, it would
completely destroy VHF contesting for me....and many others. A BLANKET
BAN ON DIGITAL MUST NOT BE DONE!!!
IF FT8 were banned in June, then the contest would revert to a SSB
during the day and meteors at night(EME happens whenever the moon is
up--this can be good or bad, depending on the time). This is what we
had before FT8 came along. I am suggesting the June contest, because
that is when we have the greatest chance of some really good rates via
Es....most especially on 6M but sometimes also on 2M. Would this
increase participation?? I don't think so.
I would rank these three proposals thusly:
1)Best proposal
2)Absolutely terrible
3)Neither great nor terrible
IF the goal is to keep up the participation of Amateurs of every stripe,
1) is the clear winner. The so called "casual contesters" have shown up
in droves for "an FT8 contest". We need to continue to encourage this
for the betterment of Amateur Radio in general and VHF in particular.
Thanks for your consideration....
73 Marshall K5QE
Phone is 409-787-3830 if you want to talk about all this....
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