[VHFcontesting] This weekend VHF contest

[Bruce Tobias]

My thanks to everyone who replied via the list and also privately. 
I'll address some you thoughts below.

I'm not new to contesting. I've done vhf ssb contests for several 
years. Before we downsized to a 1st floor condo type unit, I had a 
roof full of G0KSC yagis for 6-70cm. And 3 HF antennas.

I'm doing FM only because I see it as a challenge. When I did 
VHF/UHF sideband, I always had FM running to pick up the extra Q's, 
so people are out there. When I ran sideband, 100 watts on 2m, 35 
watts on uhf, and 25 watts on 220. I can't compete with too many 
SOLP stations.

Guys say I need to be on a mountain to be competitive. The only 
mountains we have around here are made from trash. Greene Valley is 
about one mile from me. Elevation about 900 ft. Most of you might 
think that's not much, but for us, its pretty high.

I don't really want to rove. We have several rovers in the Chicago 
area, and they do a very good job.

I do talk up contests on nets and also my local club. Seems most 
people don't have simplex freqs programmed in their memory channels. 
If its not a repeater, they wont even try. Their loss. 146.52 
simplex is pretty dead in the Chicago area. Before it was allowed, 
146.55 was the go to simplex channel for contests. Almost zero FM 
activity on anything else. 146.52, 146.55, 223.50 and 446.00 are 
pretty much it around here. I'm very polite, I'll move anywhere 
someone wants to go.

Last September I played on the trash hill for less then 3 hours on 
Sunday. To my surprise I placed 6th nationally. Granted there were 
only 18 entries, but still much better then I expected. People 
wanted a FM only category, so I'm going to try it.

Like I said at the beginning. I look at it as a challenge. I'm not 
up for mountain topping running only 10 watts like Zach. He found 
his niche, maybe FM is mine.

Thanks for letting me ramble

Bruce
wb9woz
EN51xr