[VHFcontesting] Are EME/MS digital QSOes reducing rovers contributions?

[Mark Spencer]

Yes I agree re spotting.  To be transparent at first I was a bit hesitant about the new rules but I now see the benefit.


  I have benefited from being spotted on more than one occasion.   Despite typically not taking advantage of the various on line info sources while roving / operating portable, being spotted is nice.

As I expect to go further afield next year I suspect being  spotted will play a bigger role in making contacts.

I'm still not entirely sold on the digi modes for roving / portable use but will keep trying especially when other stations make the effort to run them.   In particular I do see clear benefits in the meteor scatter modes.

I'm also going to put some more thought into how to get internet while roving / portable.   (Ie. using directional cellular antennas vs simply hoping my smart phone gets signal.   I've done this before in a non ham radio setting and have most of the bits and pieces I need, so I just need to add this to the project list and get it done.   It will be one more thing to setup and tear down though.) 


Best regards 
Mark S
VE7AFZ

> On Sep 16, 2015, at 1:58 PM, Steve Stahl <ke7ihg at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I traveled to DN02 this contest...had no phone or internet. Worked my ×@$ off and spent a fair amount of money. 
> In the end I had 18 Q's....Would I have done better with spotting, yes I think so.
> I'm not sure I'll travel to any remote grids again without access to the world. 
> It was fun and a beautiful trip but also was frustrating.
> Very hard to justify that much treasure , both in sweat , time and money.
> 
> Like it or not I am good with spotting and I doubt that anyone who wants mults, particularly rare ones would complain
> 
> Steve / KE7IHG
> 
>> On Sep 16, 2015 11:50 AM, "Mark Spencer" <mark at alignedsolutions.com> wrote:
>> A few comments re this.
>> 
>> I've found that MS / long haul digital qso's are challenging to make while roving / portable especially if I don't have good Internet connectivity.  Over 90 percent of the successful MS / long haul digi mode QSO's that I have made outside of contests would not have happened without constant access to the internet by both me and the other station.  These QSO's on average probably took 30 minutes or so to complete.
>> 
>> During the last contest I spent about an hour in total of my six and a half hours of prime operating time in a semi rare grid trying to work MS with no results.   About half this time was spent in an effort to work a station in a rare grid that prior to the contest had announced they were going to run on digi modes.   Deciding to run MS / digi modes was my choice though and on balance I'd probably do it again as I would have liked to work the rare grid, and I figured I had a reasonable chance of picking up at least one more grid in that hour, but things didn't work out that way.
>> 
>> (Between the 11am pst contest start time, and my desire to have a two hour tear down and packup process done before nightfall I had about 6 and a half hours to run the entire station.   I was able to keep the 2M station up until the very end.  Staying overnight is also apparently not allowed in that location.)
>> 
>> I doubt I will run MS or long haul digi modes in a future contest without a pre arranged sched on a frequency other than the customary calling frequencies, and preferably some form of near real time communications with the other station to confirm that they are looking for me.
>> 
>> In hindsight during the last contest I'm almost certain I would have picked up more grids and or bands by focusing on terrestrial ssb / CW for another hour, but hindsight is 20/20 and I wanted to work the rare grid more than I wanted to simply run up my score.
>> 
>> To answer the question though, In my case at least the answers is that yes, MS / digi efforts did in hindsight reduce my roving contribution.  I'll put more thought into running these modes or not in future contests.  All that being said I do like having the option to run these modes and I'm fine with the rules as they are.   I just need to put more thought into how I choose to run my station.
>> 
>> 73's Mark S
>> VE7AFZ
>> 
>> Sent from my iPad
>> 
>> 
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