[VHFcontesting] [VHF] My 2 meter contesting ideas/opinions

[Alex]

Hi John,

Good post! 

"John  Geiger (NE0P)"  wrote

> 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.

Last night during the contest a new local ham answers my CQ. He was running an FT-100D and a vertical at 20 feet. I was so glad Skip, KH6TY, and I were there to work him. Now he knows there are indeed people in that band segment and that not everything happens on an FM repeater.  If we weren't there I bet the scenario you described would have unfolded and we'd have missed an opportunity. We invited him to our PSK31 net which we hold twice a week on 2 meters. 

Our 2 meter PSK31 net starts in the FM and we later switch to SSB. We use FM for several reasons, but the two most important are that (new) hams will have easy access to two meter FM gear, and the fact that the LO in the rig does not have to be very stable and tuning is easy. (You can be over 3 kHz off and the PSK signal will still be on the same spot on the waterfall.)  We use horizontal antennas right now, but are considereing switching to vertical as omnidirectional gain is easier to come by for net control. Ultimately we want to turn this into a state wide net with net control in the center of the state. We are experimenting with different antennas  and are working on different ideas including switchable yagis rather than rotating yagis. The point is that we are trying to create an activity someone can easily participate in that will have a very low threshold in technical requirements.

What I find amazing is that folks certainly are willing to put yagis up, but vertically so they can work distant repeaters! That's another consideration for us to go vertical with the net. More people have verticals and it seems silly not to take advantage of that.

Maybe we even need to let go of this notion and tradition that weak signal work is done with horizontally polarized antennas only. Then we'd be able to take advantage of the fact that folks already have the right gear to try it and have a greater chance to actually work someone.  And that is really up to us.

Anyway, good point and good subject.

73,
--Alex KR1ST
http://www.kr1st.com