[VHFcontesting] All BS Aside: Who Operated During 2 meter SPRINT on Monday, 08April2019?

[k5qe at k5qe.com]

Hi Patrick....you are right about the CW calling freq....I don't think  
one exists now.  I would suggest that 144.200 is about the closest  
thing.....at least in our area.  ASIDE:  Please hold the flames to one  
per week on this topic.  There may be established CW calling  
frequencies in other areas that I am just not aware of.

Did you use a chat room for coordination?  That really helps a lot.  I  
don't know where the Sprint ops might hang out, but during the big  
contests I use PingJockey for meteor scatter and that increases the  
QSOs a lot.  I don't know where the FT8 ops hang out now as far as a  
chat page.  They may just all hang out on 144.174.

Congratulations on the fine Sprint showing.

73 Marshall K5QE


Quoting Patrick Thomas <p-thomas at mindspring.com>:

> I know I'm a just a blip on the radar for VHF contests but since you  
> asked....
>
> I had the best 2m sprint I've ever had, here in EN82 - sorry to say  
> but it was mostly due to FT8.  Reached the usual handful of locals  
> on CW/SSB, and then figured "what the heck, I'll see who's on  
> digital" and there were probably 10-15 people constantly going at it  
> there all sprint long.  So kudos to them for being on.
>
> Mostly I figure the advantage is not as much about FT8 itself (as I  
> could clearly hear most of the traffic by ear) but more that FT8  
> basically forces you into using one particular frequency.  I learned  
> that the CW calling frequency was 144.100 back in the day but have  
> never once heard anyone calling there during a contest... so instead  
> I have to manually scan 250kHz of bandwidth, over 360 degrees... so  
> what is that, 90 million bandwidth-degrees? :)  Okay, I guess only 8  
> beam positions when I'm looking for randoms or calling CQ, but still  
> you get the point.  Yeah, there are spotting sites, but again  
> there's multiple sites, and they are national so the s:n ratio is  
> not always optimal for us small guys.
>
> My home QTH is notoriously poor for VHF (antenna is about 30ft below  
> average terrain) but nevertheless I was able to get someone 350+  
> miles to my southeast, and another ~350 miles to my north... which  
> for me is really good!  Proof that it comes down to participation  
> more than anything else.
>
> Thanks to everyone who was on!
>
> Patrick
> KB8DGC