[VHFcontesting] An idea for the sprints.
Ed Kucharski
k3dne at comcast.net
Fri Oct 2 11:05:31 EDT 2020
I was about to post the same thing Zack. You're right. In the 2m sprint, NU4E took the time and trouble to take his station to a spot on the Blue Ridge Parkway at 6000 ft. to operate the sprint (thanks Matt!). Anything shorter than 4 hours would probably keep those type of portable operations and rovers from participating.
73,
Ed K3DNE
EM94
> On 10/02/2020 10:58 AM Zack Widup < w9sz.zack at gmail.com mailto:w9sz.zack at gmail.com > wrote:
>
>
> If you're a Rover, 4 hours is barely enough time to get going. There's
> transit time between stops and that eats up a lot of time.
>
> 73, Zack W9SZ
>
> On Fri, Oct 2, 2020 at 9:06 AM Ed Kucharski < k3dne at comcast.net mailto:k3dne at comcast.net > wrote:
>
>
> > > I'm gonna have to disagree with Chet. 4 hours seems like the perfect time
> > period for a sprint. In fact, I ran out of time in the 2m sprint trying to
> > work stations at 22:59. I consider a marathon a 48 hour HF contest or the
> > ARRL VHF contests - not a 4 hour sprint. Perhaps, if some think 4 hours is
> > too long, additional sprints can be devised (mini-sprints)? A separate 1 or
> > 2 hour event that would be in addition to the sprints that already exist at
> > a different time of year - similar to the CW Ops Test (CWT) that are of a 1
> > hour duration or Phone Fray a 30 minute contest on HF. IMHO FT8 is so slow
> > I'm not sure 1 hour would be long enough on vhf+.
> > 73,
> > Ed K3DNE
> > EM94
> >
> >
> > > > > On 10/02/2020 9:24 AM Chet S < chetsubaccount at snet.net mailto:chetsubaccount at snet.net mailto:
> > >
> > > > > chetsubaccount at snet.net mailto:chetsubaccount at snet.net > wrote:
> > >
> > >
> >
> > > > > Hi Dave,
> > >
> > > Many contests suffer the tapering off of activity after a while.
> > >
> > > > > Monday night football, super-bowls, debates, Sunday afternoon sweepstakes
> > doldrums, family time, etc.
> >
> > > > > And nowadays we are constantly pressed to add something "new and
> > >
> > > > > better" into our lives, and if we take more on, then there is less relax
> > time for our other stuff.
> > >
> >
> > > > > Maybe I'm old school but still highly enjoy hearing a weak signal,
> > >
> > > > > turning the beam to peak it, and trying to work it. Ahhh, that xyz station
> > improvement I made this summer is working...or not...or pick a beam
> > direction and go fishing to see what you can catch. Make your own decisions
> > when and whether to call toward a population density direction or toward
> > missing grids. SSB vs. FT8. To me that is the name of the game. I do not
> > like the idea of pre-arranged contacts or arranging them in real time, that
> > seems more like DXing than Contesting and not very satisfying.
> > >
> >
> > > > > The sprints are a good fun break from the workday, but are 4 hours a
> > >
> > > > > bit much? It's supposed to be a sprint not a marathon, so maybe with
> > shorter hours the station activity would be more consistent throughout.
> > >
> >
> > > > > 73,
> > > Chet, N8RA
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: VHFcontesting < vhfcontesting-bounces+chetsubaccount=
> > >
> > > > > snet.net at contesting.com mailto:snet.net at contesting.com mailto:vhfcontesting-bounces+chetsubaccount=
> > snet.net at contesting.com mailto:snet.net at contesting.com > On Behalf Of David Olean
> >
> > > > > Sent: Thursday, October 1, 2020 5:01 PM
> > > To: (Radio) VHF Contesting < VHFcontesting at contesting.com mailto:VHFcontesting at contesting.com mailto:
> > >
> > > > > VHFcontesting at contesting.com mailto:VHFcontesting at contesting.com >; 222 MHz ACTIVITY < 222Activity at Groups.io mailto:222Activity at Groups.io
> > mailto: 222Activity at Groups.io mailto:222Activity at Groups.io >
> >
> > > > > Subject: [VHFcontesting] An idea for the sprints.
> > >
> > > It isn't much of an idea, more a suggestion, to not abandon the VHF
> > >
> > > > > sprints when activity dies down after the initial spurt of activity. I was
> > not a big fan of opening up chat pages for coordination of contacts in VHF
> > contests. My reasoning was that it favored stations that had good internet
> > connectivity and penalized those that did not.
> > >
> >
> > > > > That being said, we now have the ability to set up schedules for
> > >
> > > > > almost impossible contacts simply by coordinating on internet sites
> > dedicated to such things. So why did everyone bail out after an hour or so
> > on the
> >
> > > > > 222 Sprint? The few diehards left were ones that I had already
> > >
> > > > > contacted. It would have been great to try some long haul tropo contacts on
> > CW or even FT4/FT8 with stations that are normally not in range. Trying and
> > failing at a 400+ mile QSO with a 25 watt station or trying a meteor
> > scatter contact is much more agreeable than spending an hour calling CQ and
> > tuning around on a almost empty band with no takers and no results. A few
> > posts for skeds by several of the diehards also went unheeded towards the
> > latter half of the sprint. The last hour, when things die down is the time
> > to experiment and see what your station can do even if it is outside of
> > your comfort zone. The worst that can happen is that the path does not
> > work! Then, there is the problem of which chat page to monitor. Having poor
> > connectivity makes monitoring a number of them impossible for many
> > operators. On a good day, I might be able to cover two chat pages. We
> > should set up a standardization for the sprints so
> >
> > > > > people are all looking at the same place.
> > >
> > > So next time, think twice about quitting early! Do something
> > >
> > > > > exciting instead.
> > >
> >
> > > > > 73
> > >
> > > Dave K1WHS
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > VHFcontesting mailing list
> > > VHFcontesting at contesting.com mailto:VHFcontesting at contesting.com mailto: VHFcontesting at contesting.com mailto:VHFcontesting at contesting.com
> > > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > VHFcontesting mailing list
> > > VHFcontesting at contesting.com mailto:VHFcontesting at contesting.com mailto: VHFcontesting at contesting.com mailto:VHFcontesting at contesting.com
> > > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
> > >
> > >
> > > > > _______________________________________________
> > VHFcontesting mailing list
> > VHFcontesting at contesting.com mailto:VHFcontesting at contesting.com
> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
> >
> >
> > >
> < https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail&utm_term=icon>
> Virus-free.
> www.avast.com
> < https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail&utm_term=link>
> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>
> _______________________________________________
> VHFcontesting mailing list
> VHFcontesting at contesting.com mailto:VHFcontesting at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
>
More information about the VHFcontesting
mailing list