[CQ-Contest] A contest that is welcomed?

[Duane Grotophorst]

N6TR - “Wouldn't it be cool if you could operate a
phone contest where everyone on the band was in the
contest - and there weren't any nets, SSTV, pig
farmers or even Indonesian fishing boats? How about
plenty of room and everyone spreads out to 5 kHz
spacing?”

And where it is a total disadvantage to try and ‘hold
a frequency’ or to wedge yourself into a small slot of
the spectrum. A contest where keeping your signal in
the free and clear is king, and you won’t know always
where the ‘in the free and clear’ is for the stations
on the other end, so you must keep moving. Or where
cross mode contacts are perfectly legit. Or a contest
where the debates about packet spotting is moot
because the openings are so localized and often short
lived that packet spotting is less than worthless. It
is only your operator skill and the capability of your
equipment that truly determines your score. Where
being able to run 4 or more receivers on different
bands at the same time across large chunks of mostly
quiet spectrum, - and be doing this between your CQ
calls. And then be specifically looking for signals
that are at the threshold of the noise and won’t even
move an S –meter.

N6TR - “Let's make it an even better fantasy - what if
you could have surprise openings that couldn't be
predicted, that resulted in rates well over 100/hour.
There might even be history making openings to Europe
or Asia.”

Or if the bands don’t open at all that ‘run’ of 5 or
so Q’s and hour on 2 meters for 15 hrs will make the
difference between your winning your section and/or
division and/or placing in the nationwide top 10 or
not. Or catching those micro openings that last only a
minute or two. Where there are a wide range of
propagation modes spanning from the troposphere to the
ionosphere that may or may not come into play for any
given contest. Where a K index of 5 or more can
actually be a good thing. Where many of the
participants are running highly directive antennas and
it is a matter of timing to catch each other with
antennas pointed at each other, - so you must keep
those antennas moving almost all the time.

N6TR - “Would this be a nice relief from banging out
QSOs on 20 meters?”

You know, the typical ‘grind’ of maintaining run rates
on crowded bands where skirmishes over who has a
frequency are common. On V/UHF there is plenty of
room.

N6TR – “Well, such a world exists my friend. Verily I
tell you that it is waiting for you to join us.”

And there are several of these, both here in North
American and similar ones like it in Europe.

N6TR - “It really is a kick being in a contest where
everyone wants to work you...”

And they will put a lot of effort into working you no
matter how weak your signal may be. Or for even
greater kicks build a rover station to activate many
different grids as you can, you get to work every one
again for each grid that you go to. Some rovers hit
15-20 or more grids in a single weekend. Or to rove to
rare grids that are only few hundred miles from
sizeable population centers. You can be the rare DX
without spending the big money on travel.

So yes VHF contesting is very different world than on
HF, try it you may indeed like it.

Duane
N9DG
EN53bj


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM).
http://calendar.yahoo.com