[VHFcontesting] Informal contests vs. activity nights...

[Patrick Thomas]

Hey all,

Many of you are aware of the common "activity nights" listed in the ARRL Operating Manual:
50MHz   Sunday   6PM
144MHz  Monday   7PM
222MHz  Tuesday  8PM
432MHz  Weds     9PM
1296MHz Thurs   10PM
902MHz  Fri      9PM

Outside of 222 Tuesdays, I don't know that this drives much actual "activity"... so maybe this post is partly a reminder about those days.  For example, I don't have an excuse to not be on 432, Weds night.

On the other hand, weeknights at 6-10PM are not ideal times to drive out to a ridge and operate for an hour or two, or to activate a SOTA site or local park... so I'm curious if there might be interest in designating some kind of informal(?) 1-hour, terrestrial-only, "micro-sprints" every month, rotating through the bands, perhaps.  Has something like this been tried in the past?  It seems competition brings out more people than "activity nights" but I wouldn't want to burn people out.

It just seems there's a lot of dead space in the VHF/UHF calendar, now... especially in the winter.  Not much motivation to test and improve particular bands.

Thoughts?

Patrick
KB8DGC