[VHFcontesting] Feeling like a frustrated old dinosaur and giving up.

[Keith Morehouse]

Yes, that is exactly what would happen and what I would do, too, unless the
rules specified otherwise.

It's all very simple.  Just remember that the idea of CONTESTING is to make
the maximum amount of points possible.  In VHF contests, you can use ANY
mode possible.  Select the one that's best at the time for maximum
efficiency.

If you don't know CW and a guy is weak, go ahead and use FT8 - good move !
It's 5AM and 6 isn't open, so you're hitting MSK144 M/S hard - good move !
You're in New Jersey, there are plenty of loud locals on 6, even though
there is no Es and you're on SSB - good move !
You're in New Jersey, there are plenty of locals, you have added bands and
are also hitting 2/222/432/+ hard - good move !
You're in western Colorado, there is no such thing as a local, 6 is closed
and you're on FT8 - maybe best of a bad situation !
You're in western Colorado, there are no locals, 6 is closed and you're
running MSK144 - probably better !
The band is stompin' loud on Es, you've run W9RM off 50.137 and you're now
running 250/hr on SSB - good move !
The Es opening of the year is happening and you and everyone else are
trashing each other on 50.313 FT8 - STUPID move !

The last example hurts everybody on the band, reducing everyone's
efficiency and turning the entire lower end of 6 into a signal-less
wasteland.  Don't say it doesn't happen - it does and I've seen it time
after time during the 2017 Es season.  A contester back east sent me a
private message earlier saying they were working FT8 on 50.313 this weekend
BECAUSE THAT'S WHERE THE SIGNALS WERE.  Everybody is part of that problem.

The whole idea of contesting and competition is to increase your score.
Methods and procedures have been evolving for decades to this end -
improving score.  NOW, for the first time in MY contesting life (40+
years), a method has come along, embraced by the masses, that actually
DECREASES efficiency (and possibly score) in MANY cases.  I can't see any
WIN for contesting in general if FT8 becomes the dominant mode on 6M.

-W9RM


Keith J Morehouse
Managing Partner
Calmesa Partners G.P.
Olathe, CO

On Tue, Jan 23, 2018 at 6:44 AM, RT Clay <rt_clay at bellsouth.net> wrote:

> Multi-mode works in a big HF contest where there are lots of people on and
> also different modes are forced to use different frequencies by license
> regulations.
>
> On VHF+ it would just lead to manufactured contacts: around here people
> would just sit on 144.200 and cycle through the possible modes.
>
> Tor
> N4OGW