[VHFcontesting] Suggestion for the ARRL June VHF contest

[Paul Stoetzer]

The problem I have with this is that VHF awards and contests have always
been mode agnostic and cross-mode QSOs are acceptable unlike on HF (I’ve
made a few long range QSOs calling a station in CW while they are working
SSB). This would break that tradition.

Maybe you could work each station twice for credit: digital and Phone/CW. I
wouldn’t want to split up phone and CW, though, in order to preserve
cross-mode QSOs.

I do agree that encouraging non-FT8 activity is a good way to go. I was
listening to 12m for a bit today and it was wide open to Europe, but I
heard no phone or CW activity in the 10 minutes I was listening - all
activity on the band was on FT8. I love FT8, but I find it unfortunate that
it is crowding every other mode out for both casual operating and VHF
contests.

73,

Paul, N8HM

On Wed, Oct 26, 2022 at 19:25 Sean Waite <waisean at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm sort of in between contesting, but have slowly started to get stuff
> together to start getting back into it.
>
> I'm not sure that this plan would be terribly effective at accomplishing
> what you want to accomplish. Yes, we've heavily spinning towards digital
> modes, but there are still some multi mode ops out there.
>
> It also impacts the rovers quite a bit, it's a lot of effort for us to get
> out there and operate, and doing it over 3 weekends means that you'll
> likely have far fewer on the road. Rochester and some other areas have
> proven that active rovers really helps drive activity, and if we divide
> them up among weekends it won't be a great thing. Even for the non-rovers,
> 3 full weekends is a ton of work and hard to do. Not every HF op runs every
> HF contest. We'd also have more conflicts with the more popular HF
> contests, reducing available ops further.
>
> I believe that it's better to encourage operations on multiple modes over
> one weekend rather than divide it among multiple. HF contests can be super
> busy and we don't have time to work a station multiple times on multiple
> modes, but aside from the largest stations VHF ops have plenty of downtime.
> Look at something like the  10m contest for a similar feel, a single
> weekend and not divided up.
>
>
> 73/Yours in Scouting
> Sean Waite, WA1TE
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 26, 2022, 6:59 PM Mark, K5AM <k5am at zianet.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > Suggestion for the ARRL June VHF contest
> >
> > Recently introduced digital modes have resulted in a
> > major change in the way contesters have operated in the
> > June VHF contest. A wide spectrum of opinions have been
> > expressed on the various e-mail lists. Many operators are
> > concerned for the long-term health of VHF contesting. To
> > what is considered by some to be a serious problem, there
> > is a feasible solution.
> >
> > On HF (for example, Sweepstakes and DX) ARRL has had
> > separate contests for CW, SSB, RTTY, and recently
> > Digital. However, VHF has been slighted, like a neglected
> > child, with ARRL providing only combined-mode contests.
> > This inexplicable situation is easily corrected.
> >
> > Suggestion for an ARRL June VHF contest series.
> > 1. Three separate contests will be held, on the first
> > three weekends in June.
> > 2. Each of the three contests will be conducted using a
> > single mode.
> > 3. In 2023, the sequence of modes will be SSB, Digital, CW.
> > In subsequent years, the modes will be rotated.
> >
> > Notes.
> > 1. The September and January VHF contests can be
> > considered later, after an experimental three contest
> > series in June 2023.
> > 2. As with any proposed scheme, there are obvious pros
> > and cons; the challenge for operators is to balance
> > individual circumstances with VHF contesting in general,
> > and the long-term picture.
> >
> > 73,
> >
> > Mark, K5AM
> > https://www.zianet.com/k5am/
> >
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> > VHFcontesting at contesting.com
> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
> >
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