[VHFcontesting] How to increase my score, or why should I try?

Wed Aug 10 14:50:15 EDT 2005

I understand the problem and can understand Bucks frustration of having to
filter through all the mail generated by it on the reflector. Seems this
topic floods the reflector around every contest time.

Radio contesting is like every other endeavor in life. Those with the most
skill and or the deepest pockets, or those willing to seek an "unfair
advantage" will prevail. There will ALWAYS be those that are willing to bend
or break the rules to win, even if the rules change. We see it in sports at
all levels, business, and politics. Why would radio contesting be any
different? Who said life was fair? Get over it.

I enjoy contesting but realized in the early 90's that I'd never be
competitive and I'm a very competitive person by nature. I don't have deep
pockets, won't talk over others in a pile up, or break the rules to gain an
unfair advantage. When I have time to contest anymore it's just to pick up a
new grid or pass out a few points and have a little fun on one or 2 bands.
Last I checked they aren't passing out certificates in this category.

Tony
KB8JVH

ENTECH
Entertainment Technologies

-----Original Message-----
From: vhfcontesting-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:vhfcontesting-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Kenneth E. Harker
Sent: 08/10/2005 2:07 PM
To: Buck Calabro
Cc: VHF Contesting
Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] How to increase my score, or why should I try?

Maybe I can clarify the confusion.

The fundamental problem burdening VHF contesting today is the "team" 
problem.  You have some station that get on the air as individual 
station competitors (be it a multi-op, a single-op, or a rover.)  In fact,
this is the _vast_ majority of the VHF contester population.  But we also 
have other stations that get on the air as part of a team of stations 
working toward a single goal - that one of the stations in the team 
wins the contest.

The captive rovers sent out by W2SZ/1 are not behaving as individual 
competitors - they are members of a coordinated team whose goal is to 
ensure that W2SZ/1 wins the M/U category at all costs.  The grid circle 
rovers of recent contests have all been members of a team whose one 
goal is to ensure that N6NB/R wins the Rover category at all costs.

I don't think that it is unnatural or baffling to find some individual
competitors who are frustrated, upset, or resentful that they are 
being forced to compete, on their own, against coordinated teams of 
stations that are mostly making contacts with themselves and nobody 
else.  It's blatantly unfair, and isn't healthy for the sport.

On Wed, Aug 10, 2005 at 01:15:08PM -0400, Buck Calabro wrote:
> > I still believe that additional category's will encourage new roving
> > activities and will foster additional activity.  That should be our
> > ultimate goal ... right?
> 
> I would have thought that a Contesting reflector would be used to
> discuss ways to increase one's score.  I thought it somewhat odd that
> a fair amount of words were expended on the VHF Contesting reflector
> on the various mechanisms we can use to penalise certain stations and
> reduce their scores.  Coincidentally, the certain stations to be
> penalised always seem to be the high scorers, which is another way to
> say the winners.
> 
> Who wants to spend gobs of time, sweat and money to build a winning
> station to then have the community change the rules specifically to
> knock the winners off their perch?  What I'm saying is that if I take
> 5 years to create half the (wonderful) rover that say W3IY has built
> up and by some stroke of luck I win my section, will the community
> then decide that my high score is somehow unethical, immoral and
> unacceptable?   Because I won?  Honestly, seriously and humbly, all
> this debate has me completely baffled.
> 
> I've seen posts tearing a rover down for not working station X in the
> parking lot and I've seen posts chewing rovers for working QSOs that
> are _merely_ across the parking lot (not REAL radio.)  I've seen posts
> ripping rovers for using weak stations to talk to big guns and I've
> seen posts that revile rovers for not talking to all stations they can
> hear - is a big gun exempt from that good practise?  And why is it
> that bad to have a weak (i.e. beginner) rover go out?  Is _no_
> activity better than a poorly equipped station?
> 
> Is it still Real Radio if fixed station A knows that fixed station B
> is at azimuth 172 degrees, distance 10 miles?  Or should it be
> absolutely random?  And should the two stations be forced to reduce
> their power so they can barely make each other out so that operator
> skill is paramount?  After all, propagation plays little part in a 10
> mile QSO on virtually any amateur band below 76GHz.
> 
> There are posts telling me that I should go to rare grids -- to give
> multipliers to fixed stations (where there aren't other fixed
> stations.)  Then there are the posts that call such activity
> 'artificially manufacturing contacts.'  If I do go into a rare grid,
> nobody will point their beams at me _because_nobody_is_there_ (ask the
> Canadians.)  But God help me if I post my schedule in advance (so that
> someone will know I'll be in that rare grid they want) on the
> Contesting reflector because that's not Real Radio.  Yet, who thinks
> it's a Bad Thing for the phone to ring and have someone tell you that
> 6m is open to Europe?
> 
> If I make a random QSO on 2m, and then ask to go up the bands, that's
> frowned on because I've 'disappeared' before anybody else can work me.
>  But I use progressively higher bands to peak the beam, and trying to
> work everyone on 2m, then everyone on 1.25m, etc. means that I need to
> move the beam endlessly and therefore can't peak up for  the higher
> bands.  If I do stay on the low bands, the fixed station is likely
> gone by the time I make it to the microwaves; reducing his score and
> mine.  And incidentally, not working him when I heard him.  Why is a
> lower score better?
> 
> If I go to a rare grid anyway, I'm too far to work 'everybody' and can
> only work my friend who drove along with me to keep me awake and a big
> gun, then my logs will show a huge percentage of contacts with just 2
> stations - one always in my grid and one big gun.  Great, now I'm a
> captive rover AND a pack rover.  If I were presumptuous enough to go
> to a grid corner and try to deliberately increase my score by
> following the rules (multipliers for each grid worked) then I'll
> complete the perverted triad and be a grid circler as well.  If I stay
> in town, I'm not a Real Rover because I didn't activate any desirable
> grids and only talked to hams who are close by.
> 
> The most puzzling part is that every single thing that a rover does
> can be exploited by a fixed station.  If you know that a beginner like
> me is in the area, you know I have a weak signal.  Call me on the low
> bands, use your superior skill to tell me exactly where you are and I
> may be able to drive closer to you so I can work you on higher bands,
> or choose a site where I can see you better.  Or is that artificially
> manufacturing contacts?
> 
> If you know that a 'rover pack' is coming through, you can probably
> work them in all 4 grids they circle (if you can work 'em in one grid,
> the others aren't that far away.)  Imagine the points possibilities. 
> 3 rovers, 4 grids, 10 bands (6m - 10g.)  There are 40 multipliers (4
> grids, 10 bands) and lots of points: 1, 1, 2, 2, 4, 4, 8, 8, 8, 8 = 46
> points per grid x 4 grids = 184 points x 40 multipliers = 7360 points
> x 3 rovers = 22080 points.  If you happen to be in the middle of a
> grid, you can probably work them at their next grid intersection for
> another 22k points, totalling 44160 points.  They'll probably be happy
> to work you, as it increases their score too.  I know I would.
> 
> Does the fixed station need to do some work to make that happen? 
> Well, sure.  Just like I have to do some work and integrate amps and
> sequencers and circulators and power busses into my microwave bands,
> fixed stations who want a better score will need to work on their
> station.  But don't bust my chops because your station can't work
> mine.  Radio waves go in both directions.  I'll do my darnedest to
> make my rover capable of talking to as many folks as I can (increase
> my score,) but I can only be responsible for my success (or failure.)
> 
> For the record, I'm in favour of a 'mega rover' category.  Let them
> compete in their own class, just like the multi-unlimited's do.  I say
> let them do whatever they want with their radios, their time and their
> money.  If they feel that contesting means talking mostly with each
> other on microwatts, then who the heck am I to try to disabuse them of
> that notion?
> 
> That was a long way to go to finally get to the point of my post.  Is
> it permissible to talk about specific techniques for improving my
> station, my operating habits and ultimately, my score?
> 
> I'll start off with this one:  What do folks use to keep corrosion
> down?  Periodically unscrewing everything and cleaning it, some
> chemical, weather-proofing?  In particular, I have a 6m hamstick on
> the car that I suspect isn't performing as well as it used to.  What's
> a recommended way to clean it?  I hesitate to take a wire brush to the
> 3/8ths connector, and I'm especially leery of using anything harsh
> around the SO-239.
> 
> Respectfully, 
>   --buck KC2HIZ/r
> _______________________________________________
> VHFcontesting mailing list
> VHFcontesting at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting

-- 
Kenneth E. Harker WM5R
kenharker at kenharker.com
http://www.kenharker.com/

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