[VHFcontesting] Pre-contest skeds

[Bill Olson]

>I think it's
>fun to just get on the air and see what you can work, and making
>skeds is just one step away from agreeing before the contest to enter one
>another into the logs come what may...

Gee Ken, I've been making skeds before the contest for some forty years now, 
and never entered a contact in the log that I didn't think was legitimate. 
What about during the contest, moving a station from a lower band up to a 
higher band? Couldn't I cheat there, too? How about making meteor scatter or 
EME skeds before the contest. OK? or not? Pretty hard to do that stuff by 
random. How about the 10gig contest? meet on 144.260 first then move up. 
Some of those dishes have a one degree beamwidth. OK or not??

I think the big difference between HF and VHF/UHF contesting is the lower 
level of activity on VHF, the greater number of potential bands, and the 
directivity of antennas. The operators that really want to work everything 
that their stations can work make some skeds before the contest. There are 
just too many degrees of freedom here: band, frequency, time, direction, 
propagation, etc etc. As far as HF contesting goes, I seem to remember 
multiop stations used to use spotting nets. I don't know if they still do, 
but isn't that the same thing, i.e. letting one station know where the other 
one will be BEFORE the contact. You still have to make the contact.

All that being said, I DO still enjoy getting on and, knowing what I know, 
seeing what I can work. But I don't see anything wrong with making skeds. 
Heck if someone wanted to cheat it would be easy enough - heck you could do 
it by telephone! but what would be the point?

That's my 2 cents worth.

bill, K1DY

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