[VHFcontesting] using the calling frequency

[Radiosporting Fan]

--- Ward Silver <hwardsil at centurytel.net> wrote:
> From reading the comments and looking at scores, it
> seems to me that in any national VHF contest, 
> there are about four completely different contests 
> going on.  One in the NE, one in the Midwest and
> Southeast, one in the SW, and one in the NW.  If
> conditions are really good - they overlap.  If 
> conditions are not good, they might as well be on
> different planets.

BINGO, I think that we have a winner.

"Evolution in isolation" (in a non-biological sense)
has created different "species" that point fingers at
each other, asking eachother to change the behavior
that they have adopted.

In the HF world, the world-is-the-world.  The band
will eventually "open" to it and everyone must play
similarly.  On VHF, that is not the case.

On the other hand...

The Internet has "flattened" VHF Amateur radio.  We
now have the opportunity to learn about other
"species" and adopt additional strategies that will
allow us to "evolve" again.  Ignoring strategies used
elsewhere may result in stagnation and
loss-of-interest within entire regions.

Whoa...is it possible that it is our very isolation
that contributes to our perceived loss of activity on
the VHF bands?  We go through cycles where VHF
activity is high, then it dies off in a region.  Since
we have no "vision" into other regions we simply
assume that this aspect of the hobby is wilting...when
in fact there are other regions that are building (we
simply don't know it).

Regards to all...and preparing for the 222 Sprint on
Wednesday,

Ev, W2EV


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