[VHFcontesting] The impact of the digital modes on the January VHF Contest and some suggestions on dealing with those impacts

[James Duffey]

Marshall - You wrote "However, the total scores of everyone in the contest has gone DOWN due to the fact that FT8 takes so long to make a contact.” 

I suppose you used “everyone” for effect, but the facts don’t bear it out, at least for the January contest. Consider the K5QE Limited Multioperator scores since they switched from the Unlimited Multioperator category in 2014, separated into before the introduction of the WSJT-X modes and the three years after the introduction of WSJT-X:

January VHF Contest scores
Year		Total Score
—Pre WSJT-x—
2014	75969
2015	94724
2016	69344
2017	61,766
—With WSJT-X—
2018	79205
2019	76212
2020	94941

September VHF Contest scores

Year		Total Score
—Pre WSJT-x—
2013	78740
2014	NA
2015	48320
2016	NA
2017	63570
—With WSJT-X—
2018	43420
2019	60606
2020	47142

June VHF Results
Year		Total Score
—Pre WSJT-x—
2013	383691
2014	483448
2015	273000
2016	629241
2017	409260
—With WSJT-X—
2018	394272
2019	252170
2020	220640


It doesn’t look like your total scores have gone down much since the introduction of WSJT-X. Now, I realize that there are a lot of factors that enter into your scores, 


> On Jan 31, 2021, at 3:04 PM, vhfcontesting-request at contesting.com wrote:
> 
> ello everyone....Switching to FT4 sounds great, except that the "casual 
> contesters" are not there.? They seem to be welded to FT8 and will not 
> move.? I have often listened on 50.318 during the contests and I hear 
> nothing there.? That forces me back to .313 after a few minutes of lost 
> contest time.
> 
> In June of 2010, the QE contest station made 1836 contacts on 6M using 
> SSB/CW.? Jay-W9RM was a major part of that.? I think that he sat in the 
> chair for hours and he is a very good operator. All that, and we came in 
> SECOND(!!!) on 6M in terms of contacts made.? Can anyone really imagine 
> that happening today?
> 
> FT8 is very popular, especially among the casual operators. They are 
> making contacts that they know they could not make otherwise.? That is 
> why they are addicted to FT8 and will not use anything else.? However, 
> the total scores of everyone in the contest has gone DOWN due to the 
> fact that FT8 takes so long to make a contact.? Yes, FT4 would cut that 
> time in half, but even if everything was perfect, FT4 can make a contact 
> in 30 sec.? A really good operator can make 4-5 contacts in the same 
> time on SSB.
> 
> So to summarize, participation is apparently up and scores are down.? 
> That seems contradictory, but it also seems to be true.
> 
> How can we improve participation AND scores??? I don't know.? I really 
> don't like the idea of allowing two different contacts, one on FTx and 
> one on SSB/CW, with the same station.? I like the idea of checking for 
> SSB on the hour and the half hour.? It is easy to program a button on 
> your rig that goes to 50.125MHz. Push the button for a quick check on 
> SSB and if nothing is there, go back to FTx.? Announcing an SSB opening 
> on the reflectors would help too.
> 
> OH WELL, June is approaching and we will get another chance. Hopefully, 
> we will get some killer Es and we can make contacts like crazy.
> 
> 73 Marshall K5QE