[VHFcontesting] HF vs VHF Contests was Re: The VHF rules....what do we want??

[Zack Widup]

I also do HF contesting. I've been doing that for 40 years. Lately I've
been part of a multi-op team at K9CT for some of the major HF contests.

On HF, people use dipoles that cover half the world all at once, or beams
that have fairly wide patterns. On VHF and above, the beamwidth
increasingly narrows going up the bands, at least for me because the number
of elements I can fit into a given boom length increases. So there's
another factor there. You have to tune the band but you also have to rotate
your beam and hope the other guy is rotating his, too. My 2m beam probably
has a beamwidth of the main lobe of about 35 degrees. My 1296 looper maybe
15 degrees. My dish maybe 5 degrees on 2304 and a couple degrees on 10 GHz.
Almost all my QSO's on higher VHF/UHF and microwave bands were passed there
from a lower band. I don't do a whole lot of that in HF contests,

73, Zack W9SZ


On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 8:07 PM, Bob K0NR - email list <list at k0nr.com>wrote:

> On 6/20/2013 12:59 PM, George Fremin III wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 11:35:55PM -0500, Zack Widup wrote:
>>
>>> Good points. VHF contesting is nothing like HF contesting (except
>>> maybe for the occasional huge 6m opening). Also, VHF+ contests are
>>> primarily VHF weak-signal contests.
>>>
>> I am not sure I agree with this statement.
>>
>> I do VHF contests. I do HF contests.
>>
>> While HF contests do tend to have more signals on the bands than doing
>> a VHF contest here in Central Texas those signals are often very
>> weak. Indeed I would contend that if you are going to do well in an HF
>> contest you have to work more weak signals than others - often winning
>> is about who can work the most weak guys.
>>
>> And they can be very slow events too. 10 meters, 160 meters etc. are
>> very much like doing a VHF contest many years.  Slow rates and very
>> weak signals coming in on very strange paths.  If you think VHF/UHF is
>> 'hard' please come and do a 160 contest sometime.  Try to make some
>> long path contacts on 80 or 160.  Try to work some countries on
>> scatter paths on 10 and 15 meters during low or no sun spots.
>>
>> When I do a VHF contest it doe snot feel mcuh differnt to me than
>> doing an HF contest - excpet that here in Texas we all share 144.200 -
>> but other than things like that it is just the same.  Calling CQ,
>> tuning the bands looking or a new station, moving stations to other
>> bands for the mults and contacts and moving the antennas around
>> looking for stations and openings.  Those are some of the things that
>> make contests fun - be they HF or VHF.
>>
>
>    Wow, I have to agree with Zack. The typical HF contest is a band full
>    of signals. The typical VHF contest is turning antennas and listening
> hard
>    to squeeze out a contact. Unless 6 Meters is open with sporadic-e,
>    then it does its "act like an HF contest" thing.
>
>    Anyway, that's my experience.
>
>    73, Bob K0NR
>
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