[VHFcontesting] Re: Limited Multi Class

[The Greene Family]

I post to these reflectors even less often than Terry, if that's 
possible.  But, the whole issue of how the ARRL VHF contests are 
conceived is a long time question for me.

Before anyone or everyone gets hot over my position, please read this 
disclaimer:

I essentially retired from VHF (and HF) contests more than 10 years 
ago.  As a result, my views may be somewhat out of date.  On the 
other hand, I don't have an axe to grind, either.

In my opinion, the VHF contests should have been revamped in the mid 
to late 1980's.

In the early 80's, grid square scoring replaced using ARRL sections 
as multipliers.  This essentially equally distributed the multiplier 
availability for everyone in the country.  Prior to that, the more 
densely populated areas were divided up into a number of ARRL 
sections, very roughly based on the ham population.  So, places like 
the Northeast had a whole bunch of sections within easy VHF range, 
while places like Texas had very few.  Since the scoring is based on 
contact points (a function of QSO numbers) multiplied by, well, the 
multiplier (number of sections) , competitors in places like the 
Northeast had an exponential scoring advantage over their competitors 
in other less dense places.  If you look back at scores for the 
January VHF SS from the 60's and 70's, you find that most of the top 
scores came from what is now FN20.  There were notable exceptions, 
but exceptions they were.

Grid squares changed that.  Guys in Kansas had equal access to 
multipliers as did guys in New Jersey.  In one practical sense they 
had more access since almost all the grid squares to the east of NJ 
are in the Atlantic or beyond.  Indeed, activity both during and 
outside of contests increased dramatically when the grid square 
system was put into use.  The availability of SSB transceivers for 
VHF as well as the high interest in the OSCAR satellites added more 
to the mix as well.

Scoring equality still didn't exist because of the distribution of 
the ham population and the availability of active people to work. 
This is still true today.

But, I guess everyone knows all this.

There are two questions about the foundation of the contests that 
come to my mind.

The first is:  What can be done to make the contest more equitable 
for people outside of the heavily populated areas of the country?

Second:  What is the point of the contest?

Personally, I think addressing the second will help with the first.

To me, the point of VHF contests is to push the state of the art in 
terms of making long distance contacts on VHF and above.  That was 
the original point, and probably is more the case today than when the 
contests started.  How much can hams contribute to the state of the 
art in equipment these days, compared to 40 years ago?  But, how much 
can hams with their better equipped stations (compared to 40 years 
ago) contribute to understanding of various propagation modes and the 
natural phenomena that might cause them?  Probably a lot more than we 
even want to take on.

Once upon a time, just getting a station on the air so that you could 
work the next state over on 420 MHz was a big accomplishment.  Now, 
it's not.  In fact, if you have the inclination, you can get on just 
about all the bands with commercial equipment.  In fact, this 
equipment has been around for so long now that you can buy used first 
and second generation equipment pretty cheaply if you try.  Being an 
electrical engineer isn't a requirement at all to have effective 
stations on just about every band that you want these days.  In fact, 
I'd bet that most hams have more trouble keeping their computers from 
crashing from Windows than they do in making a microwave station work.

So, why keep giving extra points for microwave contacts?  In a lot of 
contests it's easier making contacts on 1296 than it is on 222, or 
even 6 meters if the band isn't open.  Just how does that make sense? 
This approach rewards people exponentially for getting on the higher 
bands - not only do they get QSO's and the extra multipliers, they 
get bonus points as well.

So, my idea for restructuring would be this:

1.  Every contact is worth three points, regardless of band.  Why 
three?  The only reason is to emulate the DX contest scoring.  Two, 
one, or 17 would be just as good.

2.  You get multipliers on each band for grids worked.

3.  The value of each grid square multiplier is based on the distance 
of the center of that grid to the center of your grid.  To make 
things easy, your own grid would count as one.  The next grid over 
would as two.  Two grids over would count as three.   And so on. 
Yeah, guys in the northwest corner of a grid might work a guy in the 
southeast corner of a somewhat distant grid, and get a break.  But, 
going the other direction he or she is at a disadvantage, so it works 
out in the end.  The exact formula used to figure out what counts for 
what (working FN31 from FN31 counts as one, FN32 from FN31 counts as 
two, FN34 from FN31 counts as four, FN54 from FN31 counts as five?) 
isn't that important, since it's kind of arbitrary anyway.  The point 
is that everyone usues the same rules, and the scoring structure isn't
fundamentally based on population density, although density certainly 
is a prime factor.

4.  Either limit the number of bands allowed in the June contest to 
those below 1296, or make distinct classes for that.  The September 
contest could still be an all band affair.  January is already 
limited by crappy propagation and weather, which limits hilltop 
operations.  The reasoning is that it is just too much to expect an 
individual or small group to set-up and operate on all the bands when 
most of the attention will be on 6 meters.  Sure, everyone can come 
up with exceptions to that, but you shouldn't build contest rules 
around that.

5.  Come to grips with whatever the various K1JT weak signal modes 
will bring.  Is this a good thing or not?  In one sense, it does give 
everyone a chance to make QSOs at a much greater distance.  That is 
the main point of the contest, and it is fun, which is the main 
reason why people get on in the first place.  (You didn't think it 
was because of the great rewards, admiration, and respect you get 
when you win, did you?)  But, am I the only one who gets a much 
bigger thrill out of actually hearing the DX station?

6.  Finally, do everything that can be done to get people to set up 
on hilltops, even if only with their FT-817 for a few hours.  Face 
it, even small stations on hill tops work a lot more and a lot cooler 
stuff than large stations in typical residential neighborhoods. 
Neighborhoods have learned to hate ham radio, and antennas are hard 
to put up these days.  (Does anybody see hope of this getting any 
better?  Please?)  Putting a rig in the back seat along with some 
small antennas is a good thing.  So is putting a battery powered rig 
into a back pack.  You can work a lot, and it's a load of fun. 
Getting this kind of activity would raise the numbers in VHF contests 
dramatically.  At least that's my opinion.  Somebody bring back a 
modern version of the IC-202.  (BTW, would anybody buy a modern 
version of the IC-202?  If so, how much would you pay?)

Now you see why I don't post that often.

73,

Clarke  K1JX

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