Dave wrote
"I also feel like this last June things were beginning to rebalance. I
definitely worked a bit more SSB/CW than I have in a while."
I feel the same situation here in South Florida. We normally have a great
propagation on 6m national wide, at the same time, SSB was good , CW was
back. See the great results Steve N2CEI time put together at N4SVC, North
Florida, raw score 170K in 2021, 394K in 2022.
All scores are 2 or 3 times better than last year.
We had a very difficult time last 3 years. We lost a lot of good friends and
some family members.
My point is that we are trying to find a solution without understanding the
problem.
Let's elaborate on that. What you need for activity on VHF contest
Radio: not a problem , new radios like IC-9700 is selling like pancakes,
plenty of radios, where they are?? Turned OFF.
Antenna: here a big problem. During the last 3 years was very difficult to
get help to fix any antenna problem. More HOA restriction's
Motivation; here another huge problem, if you don't have a good
antenna/station, you are limited to FT8.
Mode: SSB, CW are always easy, Meter Scatter is also digital but the most
predictable way for multipliers. FT8 is a new kid on the block and come with
the pandemic. Several reasons why it become popular on all bands 160 to 10,
HF, VHF and UHF.
All the above and the growing problems we have to keep a good station drove
us to an easy way to forget about the problems and stick with FT8.
More and more to keep a tower, good antenna, low noise, good radio,
microwave transverter , dish etc is becoming a huge task.
As Steve, N2CIE say all the time ham radio is a fun hobby. Good times bring
more fun.
We should motivate people and talk with each other more often, help each
other to get back to having fun. Whatever the way you like.
73's
JC
N4IS
_______________________________________________
VHFcontesting mailing list
VHFcontesting@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
|