[VHFcontesting] Comments sought for new ARRL UHF Contest in May

[Buddy Morgan]

Here are my thoughts:

1.)  If you look at the number of QSOs, by band, in a typical, year in and year out, ARRL VHF contest, you will notice a few facts. There are fewer QSOs on 220 MHz than 2M or 432. There are fewer contacts on 902 than on 432 or 1296. The reasons being equipment availability. It is just not as easy to get on 220 or 900 as it is the neighboring bands. There is not as much activity on 5760 as on 10 GHz. Why not give more points for contacts on these bands, to encourage activity? Use it or lose it?

2.) You can buy everything you need to get on 1296, at any Amateur Radio store. Getting on 2304 and 3456 you have to use a transverter. To get on 5760, you pretty well have to have a dish, which makes it more challenging than 2304 or 3456. At 10 Gigs, you may have just got introduced to waveguide. The higher bands are more difficult and more expensive to operate. You should get more points. You make a contact on 76 GHz, you deserve a lot of points. (10 Gigs is as high as I go.)

3.) So, if we favor the higher bands, this would tend to favor more experienced and technically oriented operators, with microwave gear. We have to ask ourselves, is the UHF Contest, an entry level contest, for VHF/UHF operators? Or should it be for the more experienced operators? I am not advocating this, merely asking the question. 

4.) I could care less about the month or whether 220 MHz is included. Please note that I do not have 220 equipment. 

5.) I will continue to participate, no matter what. 

Buddy WB4OMG 
EL 98