[VHFcontesting] My 2 meter contesting ideas/opinions

John Geiger (NE0P) ne0p at lcisp.com
Wed Apr 5 10:22:25 EDT 2006


Based on the quote I referenced yesterday from CQ magazine, here are some ideas I can think of for why 2 meter contesting activity is declining, if in fact it is.  I know that CQ and QST probably base their results on logs submitted, which is only part of the picture, but my experience on 2 meters during contesting time seems to support that assertion, although a change in QTH in 2001 didn't help either.  If nothing else, we aren't seeing the growth in 2 meter SSB activity that you would expect to see given how easy and cheaply you can get on 6/2/70cm today with the FT100/857/897/IC706 radios out there.

I think the main driving force behind the possible decline is the availability of those radios combined with the lowering of test requirements and difficulty (although CQ magazine thinks the licensing exams are getting harder).  Today many hams go out and buy a HF/VHF/UHF radio as a mobile, or starter rig.  Given the change in license requirements in 2001, it is now possible to go from having no license at all to extra class with about 2 weeks of study.  So any ham that wants to get on HF can easily pass the general and get on HF.  So these rigs see their main action on HF, and probably on some 6 meters.  The new owner of these rigs discover that when 6 meters is open during the summer, they can make plenty of QSOs with the HF antenna thru a tuner, or with the triband vertical (6/2/70cm) they just stuck up.  For them, they are now on VHF, and limit the 2m and 70cm side to the local repeater, never exploring 2 meter SSB at all.

Or there is a subgroup of these hams who do try out 2 meter SSB using the triband vertical they just put up, and don't hear much on 2 meter SSB because of the cross polarization loss, and lack of gain with the vertical.  They then conclude that no one is on 2 meter SSB, or that you can't talk out of the city on 2 meter SSB, and give up on it, never realizing that the problem was their antenna.  After all, it worked just fine on 6 during the Es opening.  Or if they do put up a simple yagi, they just lack the patience for 2 meters because 6 is opening up every other day, and they go do that instead.  

Also, the HF/VHF/UHF all in one rigs give people the opportunity to get on 6 meters.  It used to be that the cost and availability of rigs limited most people to adding one band at a time, since most VHF/UHF rigs were monobanders.  Most people probably started with 2 meters since you could also get on the local repeater with your 2 meter all mode.  Now you get 6/2/70cm at the same time, and most people probably opt for 6 meter for SSB activity due to the longer and most frequent openings.  In the June and July contests most people are going to focus on 6 if there is Eskip because the QSOs will come quicker-and so with the mults-on 6 compared to 2.

I also think that the focus of ham radio has changed since 9/11/01.  Go to your local club meeting sometime soon.  If your local club is anything like mine, all you will hear discussed is emergency communications, APRS, and a little public service.  You will hear very little about HF communications, must less 2m SSB and VHF contesting.  This is what the newcomers to ham radio are constantly fed with, so many of them are probably ignorant of what can be done with 2 meter SSB.  I always try to teach the propagation chapters at our licensing classes so I can tell them what can be done with the technician license frequencies.  I am doing that again this saturday.  I first got interested in 2 meter SSB after reading an article on the Sidewinders on Two group in a ham magazine (I think it was Worldradio) around 1982.  It took me quite a few years more to get a 2 meter SSB rig, but one of my friends got one right after that and we would do multiop contesting with it.  I first got ex
 posed to 6 because one of the members of a local club (Norm, now K9MGR, then KA9MGR) was getting interested in it and he kept talking to me at meetings about how great 6 meters was.  Still it took me 10 years to get a 6 meter rig after that.

Finally, I think some of the serious VHFers have just gone up in frequency because of the availability of HF/VHF/UHF rigs.  It is no longer a challange at all to get on 2 meters, so they have gone back to the challange by going to the microwaves.

Sorry for the length of this email, but I don't think the issue can be addressed with a single sentence or 2.  And these are just some possible reasons.  I am sure that there are plenty more also.

73s JOhn NE0P
EM04to 

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