[VHFcontesting] The ARRL VHF contests.....

[Terry Price]

FT8, like MSK144 and JT65 have their place. I have made contacts using FT8 that I would not have made on cw or SSB. If any of the readers of this watch any Indy car racing, they have a "push to pass" button on the race cars that gives them an extra boost of horsepower but they are limited to the number of minutes they can use it and once used up, that's it. Maybe a variation of this where FT8 QSO's are only permitted during certain hours so the folks that don't have real stations and want to load their HF antenna on 6m they can still get on and work folks but all other times it's cw or SSB where you can intelligently communicate and tell the guy on the other end to QSY to other bands. Or, limit the % of FT8 QSO's that your log can contain. With MSK144 and JT65, most often folks are in a chat room and can communicate while FT8 seems to be a free-for-all and MSK144 and the JT modes have never caused some of the issues we have now.

Once again for the umpteenth time, I'm not anti-FT8, it just makes moving people and high rates impossible. While I haven't been on VHF as long as some, I've been pretty active over the last 35 years and I'm scared shitless at what I see the trend to be.

If there were designated FT8 hours that were universal across all time zones, folks would know when to listen on FT8 and the rest of the time SSB/CW, if you can't work 'em during SSB/cw, wait for the next FT8 period and try again.

Terry -W8ZN

-----Original Message-----
From: VHFcontesting [mailto:vhfcontesting-bounces+terry=directivesystems.com at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Marshall-K5QE
Sent: Monday, September 27, 2021 5:11 PM
To: VHF Contesting <vhfcontesting at contesting.com>
Subject: [VHFcontesting] The ARRL VHF contests.....

Hello All....As you probably know, I have a large VHF contest station in East Texas, outside Hemphill.  I have operated every VHF contest since 2004, as well as all the CQ WW VHF contests.  I have watched VHF contesting change over the years, so I feel qualified to make a few observations.

ASIDE:  When I type FT8, I mean FT8 and FT4, but NOT MSK144, JT65, or Q65.

It is somewhat true that "VHF contests have now evolved into mostly 50- and 144-MHz FT8 contests with very little SSB/CW activity nor much activity on the higher bands".  I disagree with the above about the activity on the higher bands.  We have NEVER had much activity on the higher bands.  In this last contest, we actually had a much better activity on 222 than we normally have.  432 was pretty flat.

Possible suggestions:  1)Do nothing.  Allow the contests to stay as they are now.  This will be the bane(possibly the death) of SSB.  CW is already essentially dead.  Right now, for the Rookies and the HFers, you cannot "pry FT8 from their cold dead fingers".  These folks know that they are making contacts that they could not make via SSB or CW, even if the rate is poor.  They just won't change.  If the rule makers try to push them away from FT8, they will just quit and we will lose those operators from VHF in general and VHF contesting in particular.

2)Try some kind of a scheme where FT8 counts for 1 point, SSB/CW  counts for 2 points.  The band multiplier would remain.  So a 2M QSO on SSB would be worth 2 points, and 222 contact on SSB would be worth 4 points(June and Sept).  I really abhor these kinds of schemes.  It would be logging nightmare AND you would have folks working on FT8 and then trying to get another contact on SSB to increase their points.  The idea of contesting is to work someone new, not to go back and work the same guy again.  I really hate the whole idea here.

3)Change the June contest to prohibit FT8 and FT4 but NOT to prohibit
MSK144 or JT65.  As you know, MSK144 is used for meteor scatter and JT65 is used (primarily) for EME.  Both of these are weak signal modes that take significant time to make a contact.  They have always been extremely useful late at night when the bands are just dead to all other modes.  IF a blanket ban on digital contacts were enacted, it would completely destroy VHF contesting for me....and many others. A BLANKET BAN ON DIGITAL MUST NOT BE DONE!!!

IF FT8 were banned in June, then the contest would revert to a SSB during the day and meteors at night(EME happens whenever the moon is up--this can be good or bad, depending on the time).  This is what we had before FT8 came along.  I am suggesting the June contest, because that is when we have the greatest chance of some really good rates via Es....most especially on 6M but sometimes also on 2M.   Would this increase participation??  I don't think so.

I would rank these three proposals thusly:
1)Best proposal
2)Absolutely terrible
3)Neither great nor terrible

IF the goal is to keep up the participation of Amateurs of every stripe,
1) is the clear winner.  The so called "casual contesters" have shown up in droves for "an FT8 contest".  We need to continue to encourage this for the betterment of Amateur Radio in general and VHF in particular.

Thanks for your consideration....

73 Marshall K5QE
Phone is 409-787-3830 if you want to talk about all this....
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