[CQ-Contest] RE: [WSVHF] VHF Sprints

[George Fremin III]

Russ Pillsbury writes:

> PS: For example, I worked 154 stations on 2 meters this sprint.  The top
> station in this area worked 226 q's.  If we take 150 stations, and work them
> on 6 and 2, and then work half of those stations on 222 and 432, and then
> work half of them on 903 and 1296, we come up with a total of 525 q's in
> just 4 hours.  That's 2.2 qso's per minute including band changes, with no
> time out to drink or pee!  It might be fun to do it once, but it's not my
> idea of a good contest.

These contests are called sprints.
Sprint: 1. To run or race at full speed, esp. for a short distance.

This sort of rate is often acheived in HF contests and sometime
even on 6 meters.  I just looked at the last two all band
HF contest efforts I did. 

In the WPX SSB contest I made 546 contacts in the first 4 hours.
It is true I only made 43 band changes in that 4 hours....

In the SS SSB I usually make between 550 and 600 QSO in
the first 4 hours and the exchange is about 5 to 6 times
as long as the one in the VHF contests. 

These rates are not that fast - in the 10 meter 
contest I had four consecutive hours on Sat. morning 
that totaled 731 contacts.  Of course I did not have
to change bands. 

In most of these HF contests I dont even get out of the 
chair for 6 to 9 hours at a time or more.  Of course many 
of them last 36 or 48 hours so I dont get much if 
any sleep either.  When I do a VHF contest - I operate it
the same way.  Back when I was starting out in contesting
I was told that the only way to make contacts was to 
stay in the chair in front of the radio. 

This even applies to VHF contesting - and maybe even 
to a larger degree - due to the fact that band openings
are very short and VERY unpredictable.  


-- 

George Fremin III                 
Johnson City, Texas             "Experiment trumps theory." 
K5TR (ex.WB5VZL)                            -- Dave Leeson W6NL
geoiii at kkn.net                             
830-868-2510                      
http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr                   


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