[VHFcontesting] Thoughts on the Digital Modes and VHF Contesting

[Bob K0NR - email list]

There's another principle well established in vhf contests: don't 
discriminate between QSOs by mode.
None of the major VHF contests give you different points based on 
modulation/mode.
(In contrast, Field Day gives more points for CW vs SSB.)
A Q is a Q, use whatever technique is most effective and it will all 
work out in the end.

The irony is that FT8 is not as fast as CW or SSB so overuse of it will 
slow you down.
Various people have already made this point.

73, Bob K0NR

On 23-Jan-18 10:21 PM, Alan Larson wrote:
>    It is part of the principle of the contests that we give more multipliers
> for making more difficult contacts.  We get a few for local contacts, and
> more for the distant ones that require more skill.
>
>    FT8 (and some of the other digital modes) makes the distant contacts and
> large number of multipliers much easier.
>
>    Perhaps we should disallow using those digital contacts for multiplier
> credit.  You still could get QSO points for the contact, but to get the
> multiplier for the distant contact, you need to use the more difficult
> mode.  This suggestion is unlikely to fly in this form, but perhaps as an
> alternate, limit the number of multipliers from digital to 5 or 10 percent
> of the total multipliers on a band.  Say if you get 30 multipliers on 6
> meters, you can only claim 3 of them from digital contacts.  That way, it
> will allow digital for the really hard ones, but the ones that can be done
> on traditional modes would be.
>
>    Or perhaps having digital contests or entries be separate from the
> non-computer processed modes.
>
>          Alan
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--
Bob Witte K0NR
bob at k0nr.com