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

[VE3DS]

One thing for spotting, back in the day (before Internet)  we used to use HF for our VHF nets… like the EME Net, CSVHF Net, ECVHF Net, 
28.885 for 50 MHz… why not establish a liaison net on HF for 
contests that rovers can access…
Kind of retro, but might be easier than trying to get cell service in a remote area…
Dana VE3DS

> On Sep 16, 2015, at 4:58 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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