[VHFcontesting] Contest Tweaks?

[Nate Duehr]

Ron Klimas WZ1V wrote:
> Fred, Ev, others: my opinion sides with Ev's - maybe from a mountaintop 
> multi perspective, the microwave points per QSO seem inflated. But ask a 
> single-op in an average QTH trying to justify investing more in the upper 
> bands. Or a Rover. Or a LM team thinking about going Unlimited. If you 
> don't keep an incentive for most operators to get on the microwaves, they 
> won't - and if you think microwave activity is low now...
> -73, Ron WZ1V FN31

The opposite holds true also, if enough microwave activity is happening 
in an area, but not enough general V/U activity to keep the band busy 
(see my comments about the ragchewing... we took that discussion 
off-list and agreed that what we typically hear out here isn't a 
"ragchew" per se, but that we have heard people with serious ragchews 
going on on the calling frequency... our's are usually more of a "hey 
how are you?!  Haven't seen you all year... okay catch you later!" more 
than a traditional "ragchew") any new folks with just V/U gear might 
find the contest utterly boring.

People with V/U-only (and maybe 6m) radios aren't going to bother to 
participate after their first year if all they hear is a rapid-fire 
contact exchange with about ten stations and then, "Do you have other 
bands?" and then they're ignored -- whenever they put out a CQ.

:-)

Of course, any new folks hooked by the contesting bug would just be 
inspired to put those bands on the air for the next year -- but I bet 
there's probably lots of operators who have shown up, realized they were 
"out-classed", didn't have anything other than V/U and maybe 6m, and 
definitely had no idea how much we all appreciated them being there for 
the V/U Q's (especially from rare grids), and never came back.  We bored 
them out of their skulls by working them and moving on.

Out here where activity is lower, a friendly "It's really nice to hear 
you on!" and maybe a follow-up e-mail after the contest to get them 
"plugged in" with the local contesters is probably key to future 
activity from new operators.  (In highly populated areas, there's enough 
continuous V/U activity that the new folks are probably never bored if 
they have at least a "decent" receive capability and mediocre antennas 
to start with.)

Around here, a new callsign elicits a flurry of activity for about 10 
minutes while all the "regulars" work 'em, then they get shuffled up to 
UHF (if they started on 6m or VHF) and then there's a good chance 
they'll be completely ignored after that... not always a good 
introduction to contesting...

... or maybe it is.  ;-)

Nate WY0X