[VHFcontesting] getting rid of 6 meters

[Zack Widup]

When I'm sitting on a hilltop with 10 or more bands, I love to work 
people up the bands.  But it can be a trade-off for a big-gun station who 
is running on 6m. Does he quit to work me up the bands for probably more 
points than he's going to get by staying on 6m for the same amount of 
time, but possibly losing his run frequency which could net him more 
points in the long run?

It's a tricky situation.  I usually just ask him to meet me on 2m after 6 
dies so we can work up the bands later. And if 6 dies a few minutes later, 
I am probably going to find him on the other bands pretty easily.

Being in the hands of fickle propagation has always been one of the fun 
adventures of VHF!

73, Zack W9SZ

On Wed, 18 Jun 2008, Joshua M. Arritt wrote:

> Not sure what you really GAIN by removing 6 meters from the pool of
> bands in the contest as a whole.  I can't imagine that a contester would
> complain about a band being too crowded... in addition to the digital
> modes, CW is another way to escape the elbow bumping you'll run into on
> SSB above 50.120...  CW filters are wonderfully effective in this
> instance, which is something HF contesters can attest to.  Perhaps an
> SSB filter too?
>
> There was a comment that once 6 opens, all other bands are pointless...
> I strongly disagree!  This is where SO2R (or SOxR, where x=number of
> bands) skills can make or break your points tally and your sanity.
> Also, 6 meter Es openings can coincide with tropo on other bands, as
> mentioned on this distribution a few days ago.
>
> There's a balance of discipline and strategy that must be struck to keep
> 6 meters from being your only band in the contest, if that's a real
> problem for you.  You need discipline to know when and how to pay
> attention to those other bands and get the needed grids and Qs there,
> and strategy to know when to kick your discipline in high gear.  This is
> one of the unique challenges of VHF/UHF contesting that you don't get to
> experience much of on HF.  HF is, relatively speaking, very predictable
> -- the band(s) will open up SOMEWHERE to produce more Qs....  not the
> case always on V/U contesting.  The Magic Band opens and closes all over
> the place quickly, conditions change very rapidly.  So if you're in the
> points game, you're ahead to dedicate a radio to 6 meters to monitor
> conditions and quickly pounce on the mults as they fade in and out, and
> use your multi-band super box or even some cheap eBay FT-290RII (or
> equivalent -- 100% ham radio = 90% antenna, 9% operator, 1% radio) to
> cover 2 meters ++ (or as mentioned above, dedicate a radio to each band!).
>
> Of course, the ultimate in discipline would be to voluntarily forgo 6
> meters during a June event -- replace the hole in your rover's op table
> with a 5.7GHz rig, or something like that.  This is for those of us
> (myself included) who aren't competitive players necessarily, but really
> just enjoy an opportunity to run to a hilltop, break out the radios and
> hear the normally dismal bands come to life!  It's these types of events
> that thus re-affirm our investment and commitment to life above 50MHz,
> in spite of those HF-only guys' looks of confusion when we talk about
> great openings 500 miles away.
>
> Let's examine for a moment the reason 6 is in the pool...   as a VHF
> band.  It's crowded because Es works very well on that band.  Sometimes,
> Es works very well on 2 meters...  if we get a massive Es cloud that
> enhances 2 meters all contest long, do we start calls to exclude it from
> the pool?  I wouldn't think so.  Maybe if 10 meters were remarkably
> dull, we could include it in the contest???   Equally unlikely.
>
> So it's my humble editorial thesis that the 6 meter band is that 900lb
> gorilla of VHF contesting.  And we already have a contest in August that
> takes care of the 6 meter problem.  When that time comes around, I'll
> see YOU on 222!
>
>
> 73,
>
>    - Josh Arritt / KF4YLM
>      EM97ui
>