[VHFcontesting] W3ZZ & Activity Level in June ARRL VHF QSO Party

[Mike Urich]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <N3AWS at aol.com>

One aspect I had hoped we would see did not seem to materialize at least
here
in NE Florida--it seemed FM simplex activity was still next to non-existant.
But I had limited operating time, maybe there was some increase in FM
simplex
that I missed.



Mike wrote

I don't believe that we, the amateur community in general, does enough to
promote V/UHF contesting with the FM mode.  I think we're missing a
tremendous opportunity to get newbie's who may only have a HT or FM (only)
mobile rig involved in contesting with limited equipment.

With respects to field day.

I still believe (I expressed this opinion here before) that the league needs
to change the points scoring for V/UHF field day contacts to reflect that of
the other V/UHF contests.  I'm of the opinion that this would go a long way
to open up additional V/UHF activity during field day.  My club, CLARC
(K5HOU) www.clarc.org ran a FM rig off of a battery and a solar collector
for power and made several contacts on FM, more than enough for the extra
points credit for solar power.  With respects to FD V/UHF stations in
general, with the amount of effort that goes into setting up a fair (never
mind good) V/UHF contest station and for no more points that you get for
each contact it seems hardly worth the effort.

Mike Urich
www.ka5cvh.com
www.ka5cvh.com/downloads/downloads.htm