[VHFcontesting] On 6m Was: VHF Ethics and real time information sources

[Alex]

Les Rayburn, N1LF wrote:

> B. I found the contest to be too "6 Meter" dominant. Let's face it, if 
> you're interested in a high score, then it makes little sense to move 
> someone up to 2 meters or higher

I'm somewhat of a newbie too, and I concur. My wife and I were a first time rover this year and found that as soon as 6m opened up, that the contest got really really boring. I didn't built 2 and 432 capability into the rover as an alternative if 6m didn't open up... When 6m opened up, it became utterly pointless to be a rover. 

I would be a proponent of dropping 6 meters from the VHF contests. Nowadays even starter rigs have 6m capability. In itself that's not a bad thing, but with so much 6m capability out there it's hardly worth it to have other bands available to move stations to when 6m opens up. Just for giggles look up in the 3830 list archives how many 6m only entries there are.

> Like many casual contesters, I'm interested in logging new countrie----er, I 
> mean new grids. So I spent more time on 2 Meters and up than a lot of folks 
> in my section. My score reflects that.

There was already little activity in my area on 2 and 432, which is one of the reasons to go rover this year. When 6 was dead, it indeed created more activity among the locals. But as soon as 6 meters opened up, even most the locals were nowhere to be found.

> If part of the reason for these contests is to encourage activity on the 
> higher bands, I think that high band contacts should be weighed more than 
> they currently are.

That, or dropping 6 meters altogether.

> At one point in the contest, 2 Meter E-Skip was really hot. 

<snip>

> He worked me 
> and then called CQ over and over, with no takers. We ended up almost 
> ragchewing...both of us laughing and joking that everyone was on six.

Same here. Worked only 1 station on 2m Es. We even had set up 2 stations in the rover so we could work 6 and 2 simultaneously in order not to miss out on any great openings on 2 meters and to move stations quicker from one band to the other.

I'm seriously reconsidering doing this again. Perhaps only in those contests where 6m Es is least likely to happen.

73,
--Alex KR1ST (EM92)
http://www.kr1st.com