[UK-CONTEST] 144AC contesting

[Jonathan G0DVJ]

Hi Alex, All...

Two things occur to me immediately in response to your question...

1) The changes in licensing in recent years have tended to welcome  
many folk into the hobby for whom the ambition is to chat to someone.   
Much of the material associated with the hobby promotes this aspect.   
Years ago, I believe that many more were attracted into the hobby  
because of the science of how or why radio works or at least some  
fascination with the wonder of radio.  The ambition of many of these  
folk was to push the boundaries, set personal goals in some way etc.   
At least I think the more technical entry to the hobby encouraged  
people to think a little at least about what constitutes good or an  
achievement on different frequencies for example.  Now HF is so  
accessible (see related point 2 below) for a whole host of reasons,  
the excitement of distance seems to be a rather simplistic yet common  
goal for people.  The whole ethos of making things easier would  
suggest that something as simple as a desire to collect countries will  
invariably be attempted on HF rather than VHF.  And most foundation  
courses are run with the operating practical sessions on 2m FM and 80m  
SSB ... not a great start or example.

and related to the above ...

2) It is hard to get a modern radio which is a basic VHF/UHF multimode  
without HF bundled in.  So you're new to the hobby and have this  
Japanese black box ... (given what I said in 1 above) are you going to  
go straight for the HF bands and work those?  or are you going to go  
straight to 2m SSB/CW?   And if you can't afford the low end multimode  
HF//6/2/70 line of transceivers, you are sitting there newly licensed  
with a VHF/UHF Handheld which only offers FM on all those bands.  And  
so the FM/repeater style operation ensues.  Years ago, there was an  
FT290R, 480R, TR9000, 9130, etc.   The handheld transceiver range is  
the easiest way for a newcomer to be able to chat on-air.  Some will  
manage to see the light before they get disillusioned with local FM  
chatter and a few of those may be fortunate to be shown other things  
by some of us already with the bug.  But I fear most are not.   And  
all the latest emphasis on D-star enabled rigs and Internet linking of  
repeaters simply provide more distractions.

So in summary I reckon there is neither the knowledge and incentive  
nor the kit out there nowadays to encourage newbies into 2m DXing/ 
contesting.   That's why it's harder for all of us to encourage it and  
why activity levels drop if we don't make the effort.

My 2p worth.
73
Jonathan G0DVJ
--


On Nov 10, 2008, at 3:13 pm, Alex GM3ZBE wrote:

> Hi
> I have never been certain exactly what was the real reason for the
> decline in VHF/UHF dx'ing in the UK.  From 1968 when I was first
> licenced until around the mid '80's activity was excellent (for dx
> ssb/cw - I never was into "electronic handbag" style of FM/repeater
> operation).
> Around about 1985, I lived on top of a 600ft hill on the east coast of
> Scotland with a superb take off to the south and max legal power and
> good antennas on 144MHz and most other vhf/uhf bands.  Nevertheless I
> remember coming to the conclusion that I was spending a  
> disproportionate
> amount of time listening to white noise on vhf/uhf, I then decided to
> take down most of my antennas except for a token 2M setup. So activity
> was already falling off even then in the period from 1985  
> until1988.  I
> moved to England in 1988 and was surprised ito find it was not as good
> as I expected in the Midlands either!
>
> So if we are looking to reverse the trend, I would be interested to  
> hear
> views on what was thought to be the reason for the decline in the  
> first
> place?
> Alex, GM3ZBE
> _______________________________________________
> UK-Contest mailing list
> UK-Contest at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/uk-contest