[VHFcontesting] An idea for the sprints.

David Olean k1whs at metrocast.net
Fri Oct 2 11:12:31 EDT 2020


Hi Jay,

i hear you.   I live on the  edge of the abyss. If I turn my beam NE I 
see what you are talking about. There is almost zero activity in that 
direction. The only way I can tap into the real activity is to make 
ridiculously large antennas to overcome some of my geographic 
disadvantage and point towards New York City almost 300 miles away.  I 
am thankful for being near enough to sample some VHF activity. The bad 
news is that the activity that we enjoyed has dropped drastically. My 
suggestion was an attempt to build activity on a Sprint night and 
encourage people with small stations to try some difficult paths rather 
than quit and go elsewhere.

One of the selling points of internet coordination involves improving 
activity in the areas beyond the Golden Corridor.  If I lived in 
Missouri or Nebraska, I would welcome a Sprint night for bringing out 
some players, and I would run skeds with any and all takers in hopes of 
making a few contacts. I would fill up my four hours if there were 
stations to run with.  Back a few years ago, it was possible here to 
make QSOs on 222 MHz at certain times or days of the week. Now, there is 
no opportunity for such contacts. I have to rely on contests or sprints 
or set up schedules in advance. I wish things would change for the 
better, but I am not optimistic.

One of these days I'll get my 222 antenna tilted up and we can try a sked.

Dave K1WHS

On 10/2/2020 10:46 AM, Jay RM wrote:
> Dave, you need to look at the BIG picture here.  Be happy you live in or
> near the "Sprint corridor" and actually have access to enough activity to
> make it through the first hour.
>
> Lamenting about not running the entire 4 hours rings kinda hollow on those
> that don't have enough activity on ANY VHF band - including 2M - to make it
> through the first 10 minutes.
>
> I'm not complaining - it is what it is.
>
> -W9RM
>
> Keith J Morehouse
> Managing Partner
> Calmesa Partners G.P.
> Olathe, CO
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 2, 2020 at 7:24 AM Chet S <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> On Behalf Of David Olean
>> Sent: Thursday, October 1, 2020 5:01 PM
>> To: (Radio) VHF Contesting <VHFcontesting at contesting.com>; 222 MHz
>> ACTIVITY <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
>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> VHFcontesting mailing list
>> VHFcontesting at contesting.com
>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
>>
> _______________________________________________
> VHFcontesting mailing list
> VHFcontesting at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting


More information about the VHFcontesting mailing list