[VHFcontesting] Thoughts on the Digital Modes and VHF Contesting

[RT Clay]

The problem with FT8 as it is currently used is not just about speed of qsos either- having ALL FT8 (or JT65) activity piled on one 2.7 KHz channel makes it much harder to work weak signals. Because of that it is not necessarily true that FT8 "makes the distant contacts and large number of multipliers much easier."

For example, from here (EM53) when 6m is open to Europe, it is also open to the east coast (single hop Es) with 599+++ signals. It has been much easier for me to work Europe on CW in these conditions.

Tor
N4OGW

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On Wed, 1/24/18, Bob K0NR - email list <list at k0nr.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] Thoughts on the Digital Modes and VHF Contesting
 To: vhfcontesting at contesting.com
 Date: Wednesday, January 24, 2018, 8:11 AM
 
 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
 >
 _______________________________________________
 > VHFcontesting mailing list
 > VHFcontesting at contesting.com
 > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
 
 -- 
 
 --
 Bob Witte K0NR
 bob at k0nr.com
 
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