[Fourlanders] FW: [VHF] Gene's QST Column - Part 1

[Rogers, Ron]

OH YES !! 

Certainly does provide a lot of upcoming SVHFS Conference courtesy Suite and cocktail hours conversation material. 
What Marshall says is a fairly good summation of the content.

Ron 
WW8RR

-----Original Message-----
From: fourlanders-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:fourlanders-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jim Worsham
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2011 5:12 PM
To: 'Fourlanders'
Subject: [Fourlanders] FW: [VHF] Gene's QST Column - Part 1

I haven't seen my May QST yet but apparently Gene, W3ZZ has written something very controversial about WSJT and other digital modes.  Anyone gotten their May QST yet and seen it?  I am just curious what he said.  It looks like I quit the VUAC just in time.

73
Jim, W4KXY

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-vhf at w6yx.stanford.edu [mailto:owner-vhf at w6yx.stanford.edu] On Behalf Of Marshall Williams
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2011 12:48 PM
Cc: reflector
Subject: [VHF] Gene's QST Column - Part 1

Hello everyone....Gene's column this month in QST has taken me quite aback.  It is filled with statements and ideas that I completely reject. 
Gene and I have "cussed and discussed" these topics quite extensively in the past few years.  I thought I had "learned" the boy a thing or two, but I guess not.

The statement made by Ron-W3RJW, "What has taken me 45 years to scratch out with tropo openings and scatter contacts can be wiped away in a single weekend using computer to computer communications" is just plain FALSE(unless you only had a handful of contacts to start with).  It is a "red herring" introduced by the anti-digital folks to try to denigrate contacts made via WSJT.

In the early days of WSJT, I made the argument that the EME awards should be segregated.  This view was completely rejected by the various ARRL luminaries.  They decided that for ARRL and its awards, mode was not important....I think that they were trying to protect DXCC, but in any case, that became the "Official" stance.  I was duped into my "wrong" beliefs concerning WSJT by an old time CW only op.  After operating WSJT EMEextensively, Ifound out how great it was and I became a proponent not a detractor.

WSJT is an addition to the "toolkit" that every VHF op should have.  It will make contacts that cannot be made by the old SSB meteor scatter techniques.  It will make EME contacts that cannot be made by the old CW techniques.  SO WHAT???  You just add the WSJT contacts to the totals that you have gotten by other means.  From here on 2M, I worked 41 states via "traditional" means and the other 9 were worked via EME.  SO WHAT??  You have to have EME to work HI and AK anyway.  Most important, you still have to get on and operate anyway.

So, it is true that if you started from scratch and used WSJT, you would take less than 45 years to work WAS, DXCC, or whatever.  But you certainly cannot do it in one weekend.  The Anti-digital folks always fail to mention that it takes a minimum of 5 minutes to complete an EME contact via WSJT.  I have had contacts that took 45 minutes, just because signals were so poor.  WSJT meteor scatter contacts often take 20-30 minutes to complete, depending on how many little meteors are flying.  How many SSB contacts could you make in 5 minutes???  or 45 minutes???  The Antis never mention that WSJT is a VERY SLOW mode.  No one would use WSJT if CW or SSB was working.

What is true about WSJT is that it has generated a level of activity that has never been seen in the past.  In the "old days", it took forever to work the various awards, because there were so few stations on the air....especially big stations with high power and big antennas.  
You spent a lot more time trying to find someone in West Virginia that you could run with than in actually working him.  It is the activity level that is important, not the mode used.  Activity is more important than anything else.  Activity is KING!  WSJT allows small and medium stations to get in on the activity.

Currently, I am sitting on DXCC #99 on 2M.  This has taken me over 3 years to accomplish and I am still not done.  I have to work one more AND get all the cards in.  I should mention that I have one of the larger EME station in the US.  Clearly, no one can accomplish DXCC(or any other major award) in one weekend.  I should complete DXCC in a couple of weeks due to another FB DXpedition to a rare country.  These DXpeditions exist because of the activity created by WSJT.  Activity breeds more activity.

This same argument was brought forth when SSB came along.  SSB was "too easy", so it should be banned.  This was the wonderful forward thinking ARRL that came up with that one.  Think of what SSB is today.  New modes come along....old ones fade away.  Spark is gone...AM is essentially gone.  Such is life.

The views of Ron and Gene on contesting are equally far from the mark.  
I will address those topics in Part 2....

73 Marshall K5QE
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