[VHFcontesting] 432 Sprint and Spotting

[Marshall-K5QE]

Hello Phil and other VHF contesters.....

In the past, I have never thought the DX Cluster was worth anything for 
VHF.  Occasionally, you would see a few 6M spots, but almost never did 
you see a spot for 2M, never mind for anything above that.  Phil has 
brought up something that needs to be considered and solved before very 
long.  Now that we can Announce our Call, Frequency, and Sequence(and a 
few other things too), we need to figure out HOW and WHERE to post so 
that more QSOs result.

Because VHF is regional by nature(except for EME), posting to a national 
resource(cluster, chat page, reflector, whatever) is not going to be 
productive.  For those of us in TX, it does not do much good for someone 
in WA to post their desire for meteor scatter contacts.  Clearly, the 
reverse is true as well.  I have been mulling this problem over in my 
mind and have not come up with any great solution.

I have thought that we might have regional chat pages where you can look 
for stations in your general region.  For meteor scatter, we might have 
something like west coast, central US, and east coast. Clearly, for 
many, these areas overlap.  I can see problems with this idea, but if 
everyone posts everything to PingJockey, 1)their server will probably 
collapse, 2)the posts would be running up the screen so fast that you 
would never see anyone that you wanted to work, even if they were there.

I just returned from a 2M EME DXpedition to the Falkland Islands.  I had 
Dan-N5TM make me a "private" chat room just for that expedition.  It was 
great.  Anyone in the chat room was just there to work us....we did not 
have to endure anyone talking about their feedlines or concealing their 
flagpole verticals.  While this is a wonderful approach for DXpeditions 
and it could be the basis of the east coast, west coast, and central US 
chat pages, it might not be the correct approach for a contest 
environment.  In other words, this idea might be unworkable for one 
reason or another.

SO, I ask everyone interested in this idea, to think hard about how we 
can best use the new resources that we are finally allowed. Maybe we 
will have to segregate things by mode, so that stations seeking MS 
contacts will have chat pages / reflectors dedicated to just that.  I 
just don't know how this should be made to work.  We have lots of bright 
guys out there, now is the time for us to figure this one out.....

See you in the June ARRL and the July CQ WW VHF contests......

73 Marshall K5QE


On 4/28/2015 9:59 AM, Phil Theis wrote:
> Greetings,
> During the last two sprints several of us have been experimenting with 
> the DX Cluster.
> Lets see if we can generate more activity this Wednesday evening by 
> generating spots.
> Do it on anyone you hear calling CQ.  But also it would be nice to 
> know who is lurking on the bands.  That way we know to turn antennas 
> in the right direction and then call cq.
> For instance, if I know that VE3ZV is calling others, I can turn my 
> antenna and call CQ in his direction.
> So figure out your logger, connect it to the internet, and generate 
> some spots during the Sprint.
> I will be on ON4KST as well, but the spotting network makes things so 
> much easier by putting the information right there in front of you in 
> the logger.  I use N1MM+, it is working great for VHF.
> See you all on.   Let hope for some great conditions.
> 73,
> Phil K3TUF FN10we