[3830] ARRL Jan VHF VE1SKY Single Op LP

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                    ARRL January VHF Contest - 2020

Call: VE1SKY
Operator(s): VE1SKY
Station: VE1SKY

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: NS -- FN74iu
Operating Time (hrs): 12

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
    6:  25     17
    2:  19     16
  222:           
  432:           
  903:           
  1.2:           
  2.3:           
  3.4:           
  5.7:           
  10G:           
  24G:           
-------------------
Total:  44     33  Total Score = 1,452

Club: 

Comments:

As in recent years, I've enjoyed this contest.  It has evolved to become a much
more inclusive contest. With it's acceptance of, and adaptation to, new VHF
modes, it has changed and broadened the nature of the contest.  Stations like
mine in remote geographic locales have benefited greatly.  We now are able to
use weak signals and meteor reflections to reach stations that never were
available to us. Large stations, and stations proximate urbanized areas and
sprawling conurbations, can log more stations than before, but the larger
mode-availability is changing operator strategy, operating practice, and score
expectations.  

Station VE1SKY in distant Nova Scotia can now participate in the ARRL January
VHF, being heard using WSJT-X modes.  Ninety-eight(98%)of my QSOs were digital -
and of those, 95% were MSK144 meteorscatter.  The choice of mode for me
throughout the contest is dictated by my high latitude lack of propagation in
January, coupled with challenging distances to available stations. Before WSJT-X
modes were available, my QSO count was typically five QSOs in a weekend effort
of SSB and CW.  It didn't take long to realize that the January VHF was not a
contest that I could meaningfully participate in. Currently, I do enjoy the
January VHF contest, even with the largely unresolvable friction of distance. My
hierarchy of mode selection for VHF contests is SSB, then CW or FT8, and lastly
MSK144 for the time-consuming but important grid-finding meteorscatter activity.
By contrast, in the June VHF test, sporadic E allows for much more SSB and CW,
and often a continent-wide or better participation. 

In late January, particularly in the high latitudes, Es are mostly absent. A
look at an FT8 waterfall shows too-short pings - not traces.  In this January
VHF test many operators, new to the mode, were stubbornly trying to decode with
FT8. Those stations, if they are in reach of urban population, should be running
the bands, with CW or SSB as in the past. If they are lucky enough to find Es,
tropo or ground-wave traces, appropriate mode choices can be made according to
signal strength and operator ability.   

For distant stations like mine, that mode strategy still is not an option. But
the pings on the FT8 screen signify using the only available mode that can reach
beyond 400 miles and happily to 1200-1300 miles - MSK144. It takes a lot of time
waiting for meteors - and the scores, given the lack of propagation and
proximity advantages, will always be very modest - but importantly now may reach
beyond 1000 instead of the former scores of 10-25 total points.  

This year's contest, for me, was challenging (hunting for signals) and certainly
not fast-paced. I started very casually on Saturday  for an hour or two, just
looking around to see if I could work anyone.  My effort was rewarded with a
handful of Northern New England QSOs, all on 2m.  My  favorite by far was my
first, K1TEO, FN31 on 144.203 SSB, an anomaly and my only non-digital point.  We
were both surprised, and I confidently suspect from the sound of Jeff's voice,
both pleased with this unusual 469 mile phone contact.  

Modes worked: 

MSK144 - meteorscatter  
FT8 - weak tropo without much QSB
SSB -  tropo S5 

Thanks for everyone's help in trying to get me in their log.  The meteors do
work, but the run rates will never impress anyone.

73,
Roger (Sky)
VE1SKY
Bridgetown, Nova Scotia CANADA


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