[VHFcontesting] Digital Questions

[Sean Waite]

The problem with penalizing digital mode contacts is that it will hurt the
newer generation of hams the most, and those are the people we want to be
encouraging to get on the air during these contests. A lot of the big,
established ops and stations use digital modes just to maintain a
competitive edge, or to get the long range grids that EME or meteor scatter
can provide. For a new ham, maybe living in an apartment or an HOA
restricted community, the ability to operate a weak signal mode levels the
field for them a bit. Maybe it is true that FT8 is "only" as good as CW at
weak signal copying, and is slower, but many newer hams can't do CW.
Whether they should learn is a can of worms I don't want to get into.

Right now, I think the only thing to do is wait and see. It's possible that
once the novelty of FT8 wears off that there will be more effort on CW and
phone modes during the next contests, the September and June contests were
when it was still pretty new and people were trying it out.

As WV2ZOW said, we need to make the contact. Unfortunately for us rovers,
it's hard to handle digital modes and computers while crammed into a car -
hopefully there'll still be non-digital modes out there.

I'd fully support changing up some of the contests to bring back the prefix
contest and such. In June it's all about getting the crazy enhancement from
Es and such, maybe change up January or September to bring back prefixes.
Give each contest it's own flavor, rather than having the only differences
be conditions we operate in.

Sean WA1TE

On Mon, Sep 18, 2017 at 9:04 AM Ron Klimas WZ1V <wz1v at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> Instead of creating a separate category, they
> could cut all digital mode QSO points in half,
> ie., 2 digi-Qsos on 6M = 1 real Qso.
> Maybe that's being too generous ?
> Just kidding.
> -73 Ron WZ1V
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Sean Waite <waisean at gmail.com>
> To: "Steve (K1IIG)" <stephen.tripp at snet.net>,        VHF Contesting
> <vhfcontesting at contesting.com>,        Marshall-K5QE <k5qe at k5qe.com>
> Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2017 12:14:46 +0000
> Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] Digital Questions
>
> > Hi Steve,
> >
> > I am of the opinion that splitting the VHF and up contests into mode
> > specific contests will be at the detriment of all. There just simply is
> not
> > enough activity.
> >
> > If activity continues to grow, it might make sense to make mode contacts
> > worth different amounts of points,or maybe mode mults. I'm not sure where
> > that break point is, and certainly thus might end up handicapping people
> > that we really want to get more involved.
> >
> > It's a fair point about automation. It would be pretty trivial to
> automate
> > the entire process. Click go and kick up your heels with a beer. If it's
> > found that this is happening, a rules rewrite might be in order.
> >
> > Sean WA1TE
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Sep 18, 2017, 07:52 Steve (K1IIG) <stephen.tripp at snet.net>
> wrote:
> >
> > > Marshall,
> > > Thank you for a very informative article detailing the different
> digital
> > > mode pros and cons. I have not ventured into this and not sure I will
> as
> > > most of my operating is on the upper UHF bands. I see a lot of
> confusion
> > > with the various setups including major QRM packet collisions with only
> one
> > > calling frequency. Three questions come to mind.
> > > 1.    If the digital modes continue to get popular, do you think having
> a
> > > separate Digital Contest makes sense?
> > > 2.    If not, should the rules be re-written to equalize the playing
> field.
> > > 3.    If the automated computer program completes the contact and not
> the
> > > ham operator, does this truly constitute a ham op making the contact or
> his
> > > station making it. I wish to compete against other hams not just their
> > > station computers. Hams copying vs computer decoding.
> > >
> > > I do enjoy using a PC to assist making a contact with a SDR e/w a
> > > panadapter waterfall but in the end I have to copy the weak signal to
> > > complete a legit contact.
> > >
> > > 73's and Tnx for posting the article
> > > Steve K1IIG
> > > HF-3.4+10ghz
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
>
>
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/9l5oeiir4inn4x6/Contesting%20and%20Digital%20Modes.doc?dl=0
> > >
> > >
> > > 73 Marshall K5QE
> > > _______________________________________________
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