[VHFcontesting] [nmvhf] Pondering

[Bill Schwantes]

I've been lurking on this issue for some time now. I must say that the
declining  VHF contest environment since the advent of FT8 has become
masterfully defined by many.  I agree with most of the comments thus far:
We cannot put that beautiful genie back in the bottle. Contesting life as
we knew it has changed forever. We're doing a poor job of protecting our
spectrum space by concentrating activity on a few channelized hot
spots..... and so on.

I'd like to see some discussion about proposed changes.  I've heard some
good ones: Allow points to be accrued by contacts made on different modes
on each band. Have separate contests for digital and SSB/CW as examples.
So lets hear some chatter about solution proposals.

As long as the "submitted logs" metric is thought to be the accepted
goodness factor, we'll have a difficult time convincing anyone that
anything needs fixing. Average VHF QSOs per log is decreasing. So is
activity on the higher UHF bands; and those are the metrics we should use
in discussions about changes.

Bill W7QQ
DM75ao

On Wed, Sep 25, 2019 at 6:40 PM Keith Morehouse <w9rm at calmesapartners.com>
wrote:

> This is all good and very true.  BUT, the problem is only a small
> percentage of ops on 6M during a June or July contest really CARE if they
> are winning or losing.
>
> The vast majority of ops the "big guys" work during a killer run, be it on
> 6 during the ARRL June VHF contest or on 40 during Sweepstakes phone, are
> only there casually.  You or I can stand on our street corner box and
> preach the gospel of using SSB (OK, or CW...) during an opening,
> threatening hell-fire, damnation and, gasp!, a contest lost and the
> majority of those we work will think, "Why should I care ?  I'm not a
> competitor anyway.  I'm just in it for a contact, a new grid, for something
> to do untill the game comes on TV...".
>
> FT8 (I separate that mode out as the real killer of contest rate - MSK144
> & JT65 ENHANCE your score - FT8 does the opposite) is a fine mode, being
> used improperly by the very operators serious contesters need to put up
> 'the good numbers'.  You will probably not stop this by traditional means -
> such as education through mentoring or Contest University.  Heck, maybe it
> SHOULDN'T be stopped and just accepted as a natural change in the VHF
> contesting scene, like grid squares replaced ARRL sections as mults.
>
> If that is the case, MANY traditional ops, unfortunately for the casual
> ops, those with some of the bigger signals, will leave (and are leaving...)
> the band for other endeavors more satisfying then mouse clicking all day.
> If this was happening to HF contesting you would see rapid movement for
> change.
>
> I believe the HF contesting movers and shakers don't realize or care that
> VHF has a problem that is lowering scores and diminishing contesting
> skills.  VHF contests, by definition, allow all modes to be used.  HF
> contests have CW weekends and Phone weekends.
>
> The question on 6M is not whether you love or hate FT8, it's a matter of
> fundamentally changing the state of the VHF contesting art for the worse.
> If this is acceptable to the majority, so be it.  If it's not acceptable,
> what changes need to be made ?
>
> -W9RM
>
> Keith Morehouse
> via MotoG
>
> On Wed, Sep 25, 2019, 4:30 PM Marshall-K5QE <k5qe at k5qe.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> The really great ops that sometimes visit here can do more than 200
>> contacts per hour.
>> What that means is that if you are fooling around with FT8, making 30
>> contacts an hour(a fair estimate) while a big Es opening occurs, you
>> will lose the contest.  On the other hand if you spend loads of time
>> calling CQ on SSB, hoping for an opening that never occurs, you will
>> lose the contest.
>>
>> The contest knowledge and skill is in knowing when to be running SSB,
>> when to be running MSK144, when to use JT65, and when to use FT8.  I can
>> almost guarantee that if you blindly park on one of the FT8 "watering
>> holes" for the entire contest, you will not do as well as someone that
>> uses a more "adventurous" approach.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _._,_._,_
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