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

[Russ Pillsbury]

I don't like the idea of making the VHF contests like the lowband contests.
It's fun when we get a good band opening and it really gets hectic, but if
the contests were always like that, it would not be fun - it would be just
hard work.  If people want to make the contests into a test to see how many
times they can say hellogoodbye in 4 hours, then I'll do something else.

One further thing, I like the single band contests because it gives a chance
to see what one can do with full attention to a band.  So many contests go
by and I find that a choice dx contact was missed because I was on another
band at the time.  And it's fun to see how your one band station measures up
against others.

I guess that's all I have to say on the matter.  If you still think the
sprints should be on all bands at once, then we'll just have to agree to
disagree.

Very 73, Russ K2TXB


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-wsvhf at qth.net [mailto:owner-wsvhf at qth.net]On Behalf Of
> George Fremin III
> Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 1999 2:48 PM
> To: Russ Pillsbury; cq-contest mail list; wsvhf at qsl.net
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] RE: [WSVHF] VHF Sprints
>
>
> 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.
>



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