[VHFcontesting] The Psychology of Contest Participation

[Shupienis, Joseph]

"...the 'ground hog day' reporting in QST that glorifies the same ole boys every contest." - W7MY

As I write this, I'm a mere 15 miles north of Punxsutawney, PA, home of the famous groundhog. So I better be careful what I say!

Perhaps I could set up a rover site at Gobbler's Knob (FN00mw), where Punxs'y Phil makes his prediction every February 2nd. Sadly, its only 1600' MSL, with 2100' ridges all around.

More to the point, your issue with the perception of "East Coast bias" is accurate. Where I am right now, I could call CQ on 2-meter SSB for days -- months really -- and go completely unheard unless there is an opening or a contest.

There is no interest in VHF SSB in these parts, and even though I founded the major ham radio club here 34 years ago, I can't stimulate one little bit of interest. The mindset around these parts is too strongly geared to channelized FM operations, not too far removed from the CB comfort zone of most of the newer hams (and the old timers are becoming Silent Keys at a tragic and alarming rate!)

During the work week, when I'm at home in Pittsburgh, there are a handful of weak signal enthusiasts, but they gave up listening to nothing years ago. So once again, there is precious little activity outside of nets, band openings and contests. Further, I'm limited as to the size of antennas I can put up before some yuppie notices and the local code enforcement people come knocking.

I could just go to my club station, W3KWH, but then I'm just using somebody else's radios and antennas, and that's just not my cup of tea. And still, there are pretty few others to talk to outside of openings and contests.

So I can relate to your plight quite well, as my Pittsburgh QTH is essentially a midwestern city (sociologically and geographically true!), and the sparsely populated Falls Creek QTH I must visit every weekend is as isolated as the Rocky Mountain states.

...

What I am driving at is that VHF operation is a completely different animal than HF. Contesting is a rare period of high activity levels, punctuated by months of no signals. Except along the Atlantic seaboard, where favorable geographic conditions permit VHF-DX communications frequently, all year long. This allows people to maintain a higher level of interest.

Additionally, the coastal population density is extremely high, and many hams will resort to VHF+ since they don't have room or permission for HF antennas in their crowded neighborhoods.

Finally, for years, East Coast clubs with an interest in VHF weak signal work have been doing a great job of converting newcomers to their cause, so the East Coast VHF culture still thrives.

My biggest roving complaint is that all the East Coast home stations that allow the big guns to run up big scores never listen for pipsqueak rover signals like me. They have no reason to -- the effort it would take them to actually listen for me would only net them one or two grid multipliers they couldn't get otherwise, but going to FM allows them to get hundreds of full-quieting local Qs for much less effort.  So after the first two hours of a contest, I may as well pack it in and go to the movies. The only people I work after my first grid are the "East Coast Groundhog Day" big guns, and the die-hard home stations 200-400 miles away in the South and Midwest.

So it's not just you or me. The Eastern Seaboard has some unique attributes that are favorable to causing larger numbers of hams to be active on VHF than anywhere else in the country -- and perhaps even the entire world.


73 de Joe, W3BC