[CQ-Contest] Contesting Extinction

[Robert Naumann]

Mike's analysis is correct. HF contesters do VHF contests also - or at least
many of them used to.

Many HF contesters used to be subscribed to the VHF reflectors, but the key
concept in both of these observations is that they *used to*. 

Why did they leave? VHF can be boring as others have mentioned, and as
anyone who has done an entire VHF contest without a 6m opening would know,
it's really, really boring.

The other bigger problem is all of the silly things that have happened over
the last couple of years on VHF. New records have been set by manufacturing
contacts with "packs" of rovers. The so-called "captive" rovers who are
sponsored by big multi-ops to manufacture contacts for themselves are
another area that needs attention and fixing.

Those who sponsor the VHF contests need to fix the rules and stop the
insanity.

73,

Bob W5OV

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Clarson [mailto:mclarson at rcc.com] 
Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 11:08 AM
To: 'Ev Tupis'; 'CQ Contest'
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Contesting Extinction



Ev: I Note you are typing this while the 432 mHz Sprint is happening. Your
analysis is a bit flawed. The decline in VHF logs comes from 100% of the ham
population, not just the technicians. My thoughts: Rise in log submissions I
think (well, at least it is for me)is due in part to familiarity with
computer logging, increased use of computers in the shack, and the ease of
e-mailing in your log. If it were possible to analyze, I suggest that the
percentage of VHF logs submitted vs number of participants has increased.
That would mean participation is down on VHF. Why? Many (not me) think its
too much effort for too little return. Last night I spent 4 hours on 432
from a decent location with decent equipment and antenna, and worked 13
stations. There were grid squares I could see, yet I could hear no
one.--Mike, WV2ZOW

-----Original Message-----
From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Ev Tupis
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2006 7:56 PM
To: CQ Contest
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Contesting Extinction

Paraphrasing Kenneth's post, "Using the number of log
submissions as the criteria, VHF Contesting is on the
decline, and HF Contesting is on the rise."

> So, I would be inclined to conclude the empircal
> evidence shows that contesting overall is not in
> decline, and in fact DX contesting, and 
> expecially DX contesting on CW, has never been more
> popular than it is today.

In the USA, the Amateur Radio population is divided,
in a very lop-sided way:

Total licenses      : 655,194
Technician          : 320,499
All other Classes   : 334,695
Source: http://ah0a.org/FCC/Licenses.html

The increase in HF/CW contest log submissions is
coming from the 1/2 of the Amateur population that has
HF/CW priviledges.  The decrease in VHF contest log
submissions is coming from the other 1/2 of the
Amateur population.

Said another way, 1/2 of our population is submitting
more logs, while 1/2 of our population is submitting
fewer logs.  I am not certain that log submittal is
the gauge by which we should measure this discussion. 
Instead, maybe we, as a community, need to ask
ourselves, "Why is there such a disparity between the
two groups?"

Ev, W2EV

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