[VHFcontesting] Re: Limited Multi Class

[Zack Widup]

On Mon, 2 Sep 2002, The Greene Family wrote:

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

GET MORE PEOPLE ACTIVE!  I don't know that a change in the rules is going
to give me or anyone in this area of the country a better chance if
there's very few stations to work anyway.  My QRP portable setup that I
usually use from hilltops in the contests seems to have a range of maybe
200-300 miles on the bands through 432 unless we're experiencing
tremendous conditions.  Most (not all) of the people within this range
that I work are in the Chicago area.  There are a lot of hams in small
towns around here but they're not active on VHF/UHF.  I've been talking it
up, though, in hopes of getting more activity.

> 
> Second:  What is the point of the contest?

For me, fun and getting more people on the bands, at least for a weekend.

> 
> 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.

Very true.  Since we're not commercial in nature and don't want or need
100% reliability of the path, we're adventurers playing around with what
can be done with unusual propagation modes.  That's part of the fun, but
also contributes to general knowledge because these unusual propagation
modes now have a database of when and where they occur.

> 
> 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.

Believe me, it's a lot more difficult to make a QSO on 903 than it is on
432.  It's more difficult to make a QSO on 1296 than on 903.  It's more
difficult on 2304 ... etc.

My experience hasn't shown that it's easier on 1296 than it is on 222.

And you can buy a lot of stuff from Down East Microwave pre-assembled but
you still have to put it all together into a station.  Aligning a feedhorn
to a dish for 5760 MHz DOES take a bit of skill.  So does putting SMA
connectors on tiny coax or UT-141.

> 
> 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.
> 

I might change this to using 6-character grids and calculating points
based on the distance bewteen centers of those.  This may have a lot more
significance on 1296 and up than it does on 50 MHz.  

> 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.

Maybe we could have a set of contests limiting the bands to 1296 and
below, and another for the higher bands (hey, I'm always in favor of more
contests!)  This could implement the distance between centers of the
4-digit grids as noted in 3 above for the bands below 903 MHz, and for the
higher bands we could use the 6-digit grids.

> 
> 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?

No, there's only so much I can haul around to a hilltop.  I'm already
challenged to fit equipment for 9 bands into a Toyota Corolla.  I don't
take along a computer; I log on paper.  Too much stuff!

> 
> 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?)
> 

I wish more people did this (as long as they don't fight me for MY
favorite hilltop!)  :-)

It IS a lot of fun and I work much that I wouldn't be able to work at
home.  A "small antenna" for 1296 (24-element loop yagi) has a lot of
gain.  And my favorite hilltops don't have any trees on them.  The corn
can be a bit of trouble at this time of year, but in June it's not tall
enough and in September it's usualy harvested.  :)

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

Maybe you should post more often.  You've given us something to think
about and discuss.

> 
> 73,
> 
> Clarke  K1JX

73, Zack W9SZ
EN50vc Urbana, IL