[VHFcontesting] A distance scoring contest
Marshall Williams
k5qe at sabinenet.com
Fri Feb 13 12:52:13 EST 2009
Hi Zack and the rest of the list.....I am currently building up 4 x 6el
Cheap Yagis on 2M for portable / rover use. With a 400W TE brick, it
should be easy to work EME, especially with the larger stations. If you
were set up right at the division between two grids, you should be able
to build up the antenna, work as many EME contacts as possible, and then
hand carry the antenna across the line while moving your truck, and
start making contacts again. This is a "Proof of Concept" deal, but I
have confidence that it will work all OK. If I can get this working, I
plan to put Louisiana on EME as a lot of folks seem to need it.
In addition, I have built another 8 x 6el Cheap Yagis in case we find
that the 4 bay system is "weak". The 8 bay array will clearly be a lot
bigger and more difficult to deal with, but it could be mounted on a
trailer or something like that. I believe that the 8 x 6el Cheap Yagis
will be only 6db down from my large 8 x 2M18XXX array. Since you can
build Cheap Yagis for almost nothing, it is an interesting concept.
Another thing that has not yet been mentioned: With a single long yagi
or a stacked pair of medium length yagis, a rover could easily make EME
contacts when the moon is just rising or just setting. There is
considerable ground gain available then so contacts with the larger
stations are quite possible. Believe it or not, I have actually worked
a single 7el yagi in Switzerland. I would have to say that was a tough
one!!
Bottom line here is that EME for rovers is not that hard, especially
with JT65b to help you out. Such a rover would not make as many grids,
as there would be setup and tear-down time involved. However, the
rewards of just a few EME contacts would swamp all the "normal" contacts
possible to a rover(except possibly for grid circlers).
Speaking of which, would grid circlers still have a huge advantage due
to all the QSO's that they can make? Would a contact "just across the
line" count for 0.03 miles?? Just wondering.
73 to all....Marshall K5QE
Zack Widup wrote:
> That is sooo cool that you made all those EME QSO's in the contest! I
> don't even hope to ever achieve that in the QRP Portable class! But
> then, neither will anyone else in that category. :-)
>
> It certainly puts a new twist on distance scoring, doesn't it? Not
> likely a Rover is going to do EME, either. At least not on 144 MHz.
>
> 73, Zack W9SZ
>
> On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 10:08 AM, Marshall Williams
> <k5qe at sabinenet.com <mailto:k5qe at sabinenet.com>> wrote:
>
> Hello to everyone.....Concerning the Distance scoring thing:
> First, let
> me say that I neither oppose nor favor a distance measured contest. I
> have never operated in one and it might be fun.
>
> However, I would like to bring up an issue that has not been
> considered. In the Jan VHF contest, I made 36 2M EME contacts with
> stations all over Europe and the US. Although there are only a few
> JA's, VK's, and ZL's on EME, it is certainly possible to work them
> too.
> Below I have listed a few of these contacts, just for calculation
> purposes.
>
> A bit of analysis here: The longest contact made was to Glenn,
> ZS2GK at
> 9124 miles....the shortest to John, W4RBO, was only 774 miles.
> Most EU
> contacts are 5000+ miles. The run of the mill US contacts were from
> 1200- to 1900- miles. I have only listed 31 contacts, with a total
> mileage of 120997.
>
> The issue that I want to advance is that a single contact of 9124
> miles
> would be the same as 91 contacts of 100 miles--or 45 contacts of 200
> miles. I doubt very much that I make 45 contacts of 200 miles or more
> to non-EME stations in *any* VHF contest on 2M. The contacts
> listed(the
> other 5 are scattered in my log somewhere) would be equivalent to 1209
> contacts of 100 miles and 604 contacts of 200 miles!! I certainly
> have
> never made 1209 contacts on 2M in any contest, much less of 100 miles.
> I have never made 604 contacts on 2M either....of any distance. I
> guess
> I can dream.....HI.
>
> Hence, and I am finally getting to the point of all this, a distance
> scoring contest would inevitably become a "mini-EME" contest with
> whatever locals you could find thrown in. I would participate in this
> contest and have fun, especially since I would have a major advantage
> over everyone in the country except for a few spoil sports.....like
> W5UN, KB8RQ, K9MRI, W7GJ, K6MYC, K1JT, and a few others. HI. You may
> see pictures of my "advantage" on my web site.
>
> Finally, a contest where the advantage of the folks living in the
> "Golden Corridor" is eliminated!!! It is CLEAR that we should
> have such
> a contest!!! Considering how awful the propagation was in this Jan
> contest, maybe the Jan contest should be it.
>
> OK you say, we will just ban EME contacts in such a contest. Well
> that
> certainly files in the face of a distance measured contest. We want
> people to work hard to make difficult, long distance
> contacts--just not
> TOO long distance!!
>
> Again, I think that a distance measured contest might be fun and I
> would
> certainly participate. I just wanted everyone to know how such a
> contest will be "gamed".
>
> GM es 73 to all.....Marshall K5QE
> www.k5qe.com <http://www.k5qe.com/>
>
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0704 K5QE EM31 ZS2GK
> KF47 9124 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0710 K5QE EM31 DL8GP
> JN39 5055 miles
> QSO: 144 CW 2009-01-18 0720 K5QE EM31 SM2CEW
> KP15 4963 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0730 K5QE EM31 RK3FG
> KO86 5729 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0734 K5QE EM31 K0KP
> EN36 1043 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0750 K5QE EM31 IK1UWL
> JN33 5260 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0754 K5QE EM31 HA0HO
> KN07 5666 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0758 K5QE EM31 K0AWU
> EN37 1112 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0802 K5QE EM31 9A3GE
> JN75 5519 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0807 K5QE EM31 YL2HA
> KO26 5403 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0811 K5QE EM31 OM3BC
> JN98 5550 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0816 K5QE EM31 YT3I
> KN05 5752 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0820 K5QE EM31 WB2RVX
> FM29 1195 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0825 K5QE EM31 DK1CO
> JO63 5139 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0832 K5QE EM31 IK1FJI
> JN44 5310 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0837 K5QE EM31 DK5EW
> JN48 5168 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0845 K5QE EM31 DL4DWA
> JO61 5212 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0855 K5QE EM31 S52LM
> JN65 5438 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0905 K5QE EM31 K1JT
> FN20 1224 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0908 K5QE EM31 WA3QPX
> FM29 1195 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0914 K5QE EM31 DJ9EV
> JN49 5134 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0921 K5QE EM31 K6MYC
> DM07 1495 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0924 K5QE EM31 IK2DDR
> JN55 5357 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0940 K5QE EM31 I2FAK
> JN45 5274 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 0958 K5QE EM31 EB1DNK
> IN62 4655 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 1025 K5QE EM31 K7CW
> CN87 1899 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 1100 K5QE EM31 K1OR
> FN42 1469 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 1110 K5QE EM31 W7CE
> CN87 1889 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 1134 K5QE EM31 W4RBO
> EL99 774 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 1140 K5QE EM31 W1TMZ
> FN41 1442 miles
> QSO: 144 PH 2009-01-18 1146 K5QE EM31 VE5UF
> DO61 1542 miles
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