It's not quite "computers working computers." ARRL has a rule that, for all
digital QSO's (including FT4/8), the QSO must be originated by a real op in
order to count the QSO for a contest or award QSO. It's on the honor
system, and I'm sure some have violated it. Hopefully not too many.
I myself just am not interested in FT8. My digital QSO's have been limited
to Baudot RTTY, FSK31, MFSK32 on HF.
Zack W9SZ
On Tue, Sep 16, 2025 at 12:00 PM Steve Hewlett via VHFcontesting <
vhfcontesting@contesting.com> wrote:
> I agree 100% with WW2Y's posting and his take on the current state of VHF
> contesting. Computers contacting other computers and calling it a radio
> contest doesn't work for me. I would much prefer to be involved in the
> contacts and do the work myself through traditional voice modes and CW. I
> particularly like the suggestion to split up each ARRL VHF Contest into 2
> segments, like the CQ WW VHF Contest now is, with one segment for the
> computers only to slug it out and one segment only for the human operators
> using traditional modes and using their skills to make contacts.
>
> 73, Steve W1NIV
> On Tuesday, September 16, 2025 at 12:18:38 PM EDT, peter hutter via
> VHFcontesting <vhfcontesting@contesting.com> wrote:
>
>
> My few cents worth. For quite some time now, a number of serious contest
> stations, whether they're Single Operator or Multioperator have figured out
> a method how to maximize their scores, by having unmanned stations running
> on FT8 simultaneously in order to stay competitive.The operator at the
> manned station is either on analog or digital. This operating technique
> encourages FT8 activity and deters analog activity. Why? The FT8 mode is on
> a designated channel per band and it doesn't require operator skill to
> generate points. We're becoming "lazy". It's too much work to actually tune
> the bands for finding stations to call, or to call CQ in hopes that a
> random station answers.
> I'm guilty of this practice and the gratification is minimal at best. If
> you're not taking advantage of this, you're losing!
> I like W8ZN's idea of splitting the contest into two parts. Day one for
> analog and day two for digital. I don't mind which one starts.
> 73,Peter WW2Y
>
> Yahoo Mail: Search, Organize, Conquer
>
> On Mon, Sep 15, 2025 at 9:38 PM, Terry Price<terry@directivesystems.com>
> wrote:Well,
>
>
> Yahoo Mail: Search, Organize, Conquer
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