[VHFcontesting] VHF Infusion

[George Fremin III]

On Mon, Sep 16, 2013 at 04:29:38PM -0400, Rick R wrote:


> ARRL has tried to encourage more of the newcomers to VHF with newer
>categories, such as FM only and 3-banders (ABD).

Yep - and I think this is a good thing.  

One thing that I have noticed over the last few years is what appears
to be a disappearance of a number of the 2 Meter regulars here in
Texas.  These were folks that you might work in the contests although
not all of them would work you - they were rag chewers.  But it seems
that most of these folks have moved to 80 and 40 meters.  And it makes
sense.  If you were a Tech class ham you were pretty much stuck on VHF
for years.  If you wanted to chat with your buds around the state you
could do that on 2m SSB pretty well - and that is what appeared to be
the case for many of these ops.  But now that you do not need to pass
a code test to get a general class ticket there is not incentive to be
stuck on VHF.  It is easier to put up a bit of wire and run 100 watts
on 40 meters to chat around the state and cheaper too.

Of course we have had huge growth on 6 meters from all sorts of folks
just because just about every HF radio sold these days puts out 
100 watts on 6 meters.  

Things change and for all sorts of reasons. 


-- 
George Fremin III - K5TR
geoiii at kkn.net
http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr