[VHFcontesting] The digital modes and the Sept contest

[Zack Widup]

My VHF operating is almost entirely portable. I like to go to local
hills (there are some around here!) I use a deep-cycle marine battery
as a power source. Except for very brief operations, running the
station and a computer from the battery runs it down too fast. So I
don't even bother taking a computer along. I log on paper and enter it
into the computer when I get home later.

So no digital modes for me on VHF. I wonder how well they work on
microwave frequencies, anyway. I hear stations now and then that don't
have phase-locked LO's and are way off the expected frequencies and
drift several kHz up and down as we work.

73, Zack W9SZ

On Wed, Sep 13, 2017 at 1:49 AM, Jim Worsham <w4kxy at bellsouth.net> wrote:
> Hello Kenny.  How is everything going?  Forget decades.  How about now!  I see this all the time now at work.  The millennials would rather IM or email you than talk to you.  God help you if you actually show up in their office for a face-to-face.  You quickly become the creepy old guy.  I am not sure if that is what is driving your experiences with the use of digital modes when they aren't needed for weak signals but I wouldn't be surprised.  Bottom line as I see it is digital modes will be good for bringing in new, younger blood to the hobby but these younger millennial hams will not be like us older folks.  I have two millennial children and they think different so don't try to pressure them into the old ways of doing things.  My 2 cents.
>
> 73
> Jim, W4KXY
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
>> On Sep 12, 2017, at 1:20 PM, winger55552001 via VHFcontesting <vhfcontesting at contesting.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> I agree.
>> One thing to note... the IM-like nature of digital appeals to younger hams.... it will be harder to get the introverts over to voice and cw as a few decades pass.
>> Randy, N0LD
>>
>>
>> Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
>>
>> -------- Original message --------
>> From: Kenneth Silverman <kenny.k2kw at gmail.com>
>> Date: 9/12/17  10:57 AM  (GMT-06:00)
>> To: vhfcontesting at contesting.com
>> Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] The digital modes and the Sept contest
>>
>>> One can work QSOs much faster on SSB or CW and, from what I can see after
>>> using FT8 for several months during 6M E season, CW can also be copied by
>>> ear at lower signal levels then FT8 can reliably and repeatably decode.
>>
>> While I haven't used FT8 yet, the key takeaway is to operate CW/SSB when
>> the band (or your ears) will support it.  This past summer people were
>> staying on JT65 when that band was very open.
>>
>> Kenny K2KW
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>
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