Well,
I have to get my .02 cents in or maybe a dollar with tariffs and inflation.
I op'ed 222 and 432 for our contest efforts allowing others 6 and 2 meters.
I echo Dave's comments about band conditions, flat at best. Out-distancing
Dave is a chore but we had 82 Q's and 35 grids on 222 so I'm elated at
that. Our totals were:
6 - 196/59
2 - 239/57
222 - 82/35
432 - 120/42
160ish K
Now just for S&G's, I took a ride on the way back machine to 2002. There
was this multiop group, K8GP, which some might remember. Their totals were:
6 - 879/166
2 - 768/92
222 - 193/69
432 - 368/77
That was 1.118 million
Now this was June and 6m had ES but not on the other bands. If FT8 is the
savior of VHF contesting, I just don't see it. IMHO, I think a lot of folks
so dislike the way FT8 is used, they just watch football instead.
As to the inevitable FT8 vs analog debate, I still think changing the
contest time to start 0000 Saturday and 24hrs of analog and 24 hrs of
digital makes the most sense. It gives both modes night, morning and day
and ending at 0000 Monday allows folks that work to go to bed at a
reasonable time and folks that drive to a station or rovers time to get
home. If someone is put off by FT8, operate the analog and bag the rest.
For folks that just like sitting on one frequency and having their nice low
noise front ends compromised by everyone and their brother on top of each
other then they have a full 24 hrs to have at it. Don't get me wrong, I
don't hate FT8, I just hate the way it's used. We worked folks that are
either too weak to work on cw or they don't operate cw on FT8 but just like
MSK144 which could be used all the time, folks use it for what it's
intended for. But as a contester, the pit we all fall into is you go where
the Q's are. I actually liked what CQ did, but killing two summer weeks is
tough.
**IF** we want change, the big multiops (if any are left), major single ops
and all the VHF clubs need to propose a unified change to the ARRL and see
what they say, but we all have to agree and banning digital isn't the
answer, too many use it correctly for eme and MS.
Terry Price - W8ZN
Directive Systems and Engineering
703-754-3876
On Mon, Sep 15, 2025 at 7:43 PM Larry Banks via NEWSVHF <
newsvhf@mailman.qth.net> wrote:
> I also saw at least one ham who had obviously narrowed their receive BW
> from the recommended 2500 Hz to much less. He was very strong and down
> around 500Hz on 6. He would not respond to me when I was in the 1500 -
> 2000 range. However when I moved my TX down to ~600 Hz he came back to
> me on the first try. I assume this is because he had limited his RX BW
> -- which some folk thinks helps S/N but is totally false.
>
> 73 -- Larry -- W1DYJ
>
>
>
> On 9/15/2025 19:15, Dave via NEWSVHF wrote:
> > Dave,
> >
> > All in all it looks like you did pretty well. When I checked the HB9Q
> 222 chat page I couldn't believe I missed all the western and the HI
> stations. It really bummed me to see they "had been" logged into the
> page. I could have used the multipliers.
> >
> > As far as not being answered by loud digital stations, I also
> experienced quite a bit of it also. I had more than a few instances of
> +level signal levels that I could not get to respond. I think it’s a
> combination of things like poor receiver specs, not rotating thier antenna
> and adjacent RX signal interference on their end. I saw many instances of
> signals piled on top of each other making them all near impossible to
> decode. To avoid that happening to me I make a point to change my TX df
> often. And, along the lines of stations piled up on the same df, there
> are more than a few who over drive their audio and splatter the waterfall
> with interference making decoded difficult. There is a (to remain
> unnamed) ham 200 miles south of me that almost every contest severely
> overdrives his FT8 audio on 222 & 432 to a point that I cannot decode
> anyone within 400 to 500hz of his signal on the waterfall. When I turn
> down the gain to minimize the issue, it also minimizes reception of
> everyone else. Pointing this out to him has not helped. I've even sent
> him screen captures.
> >
> > I wish I could log even half your 222 & 432 stations. I'm pretty sure
> I could if they pointed their antennas my way.
> >
> > Dave - K3SK
> >
> > "Regardless of what you've read on the internet, FM07 is not an RF Free
> Zone. Point this way and check it out."
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: VHFcontesting<vhfcontesting-bounces+k3sk=
> buckwalter.co@contesting.com> On Behalf Of Dave Olean
> > Sent: Monday, September 15, 2025 5:22 PM
> > To:newsvhf@mailman.qth.net; VHF Contesting<VHFcontesting@Contesting.com>
> > Subject: [VHFcontesting] The September Contest summary k1WHS
> >
> > Hello VHF ops and VHF phreaques,
> >
> > I saw a few interesting things over the contest weekend. One look at the
> Hepburn map showed that propagation would be very marginal, and that turned
> out to be very true. I heard lots of complaints. It was sobering with no
> propagation lift to help. I noted that being on only 222 and
> > 432 poses a few problems for running the bands. I can't pick up stations
> on 50 or 144 and then "run the bands". Yes it is my own fault, but I am
> still clearing wreckage from the last 144 antenna farm. Waiting on 222 or
> 432 and trying to catch people 'passing through" is almost impossible. I
> called AF1T at several times but never could get him to notice as he was
> gone the millisecond after completing his contact and moving to the next
> band. The fact that he was 59+20 did not help me.
> > Stations that are S4 or S5 are impossible with these circumstances. They
> do not listen nor hear me and are gone to some other band. That leaves
> sitting at the computer and watching chat pages to dredge up contacts. I
> did try calling CQ on SSB and a bit on CW, but that was very unproductive.
> I really have no idea how to operate the contest and still have fun. I love
> analog contacts but the numbers are decreasing. The big guns now have four
> or five bands operating simultaneously on FT8 even if they are single ops.
> This maximizes FT8 contacts as the exchange is slower than molasses in
> January, so having four or five band signals at once can speed things up
> quite a bit. I went snooping around the chat pages looking for stations to
> try with. It is very slow and hit or miss, but that was the only routine
> that seems to work. CQing sure does not work on 222 or 432. I remember 20
> years ago we had a multi op station and actually called CQ on 1296 and it
> was productive. Things are sure different today.
> >
> > I missed many contacts with a few rovers as they would never respond to
> my requests for a sked. I think the problem is that they are very busy
> pointing their antennas to the populated areas and have their hands full
> with action there, so do not turn their beams elsewhere and cut their
> score. Pointing to the populated areas will increase your score much
> faster than trying to work someone 180 degrees away. I missed several
> grids because of that. Some rovers were easy to find and responsive. I want
> to single out VA3TEC/R. I am not sure what Mike was doing there with his
> rover-mobile, but he was exceptionally loud on the two bands that I worked
> him. I caught him in FN04 and FN14 on both 222 and 432. IN each case he
> would respond to a request for a sked even though my beam heading was not
> very productive. His major action area was SOUTH I was East! Signals on
> both 222 and 432 were monstrous. Congrats, Mike.
> >
> > I found conditions to be flat for the most part, but i did see a few
> bright spots. On Saturday evening, N3MK was blasting in from Eastern Shore
> of Virginia and FM27 between 0130 and 0200 UT. He was on FT8 and was very
> loud. On Sunday evening I heard a few stations calling him, but could not
> even detect him then. I did try working VA3IKE on 222 MHz on Saturday
> evening and was surprised to work him with Q65B digi mode. He was at -20,
> which is pretty good for his 25 watts. That is an insane distance of 600
> miles for 25 watts on 222 MHz. I think Ike religiously uses antenna wax on
> his antenna. Other observations were the missing grids that are always
> bugging me. No one was worked from FN33 that abuts my grid square. On 222
> MHz I missed four grids that border my own grid.
> > I did manage to work the other four grid squares that border FN43.
> > (FN42, FN32, FN34, and FN44 I missed quite a few easily workable grids
> due to lack of activity. Others went missing because I could never find
> the station to even try in the first place. KE8FD and N8LRG are two that I
> would love to try but never got a chance. I missed EN80 on 222 and 432. I
> think I had a good chance on 222.
> >
> > Now for the good news and positive results. I concentrated on working
> grids on 222 and had a good result picking off the grids that are extremely
> far away. I worked K3SK and W7JW in FM07 and EN82 via EME on Sunday
> morning. Other stations worked then via EME were W4NH EM84, K9MRI EN70,
> W6TCP CM83, W7TZ CM97, and NH6Y in BL10 N4QWZ in TN was worked via meteors
> on Sunday evening. I was amazed that eight stations were worked via the
> Moon on Sunday morning in a very short period of time.
> > Every contact was quick with no problem with Faraday rotation. W8ZN in
> > FM09 was worked on 222 & 432 on CW. VE3ZV was worked from EN92 on SSB
> and CW. These are close to 500 mile distances. I did hear a bunch of
> stations on DIGI mode who could not hear me. I kept looking at the
> wattmeter as I figured that maybe my PA had failed. It never did and it
> pumped out max power all weekend when I was on. Still I was amazed at what
> I heard and could not work on the digi modes. I think some receives could
> use an engineering update. I did snag KE4WMH/R on 222, who was down in FM17
> on early Sunday evening when the band was stinko. I had to call for quite
> awhile to get his attention, but eventually he turned his antenna and we
> completed. That was nice. I ended up with the following
> > score:
> >
> > BAND QSO GRID
> >
> > 144 4 2
> >
> > 222 61 34
> >
> > 432 52 27
> >
> > Due to the slow nature of the September contest these days, I was
> participating with a half hearted radio effort timewise, and spent most of
> Saturday and Sunday afternoon working on removing antenna tower debris from
> the site. My hilltop now looks like a scrap metal yard with all the bent
> and broken towers. when things seemed slow on the band, i turned off the
> generator and went to work outside. I accomplished a lot and rigged things
> up to get the last 90 ft of Rohn 45 out of the tree limbs. I had 90 ft of
> Rohn 45 up about 25 to 30 ft in trees where it fell. As of today, I was
> able to lower them all to ground level, all 90ft worth!! I used several
> boat winches and heavy aircraft cable. I even hauled rocks to fill in the
> woods road up to the shack. So between the manual labor and the contest, I
> was a busy boy.
> >
> > 73
> >
> > Dave K1WHS
> >
> >
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