[VHFcontesting] Activity hours

Fri Sep 20 15:39:41 EDT 2024

 My K3 doesn't have USB, so I can't comment. 
What if you want a sound-card voice keyer (essential with VHF rates)? My radios also don't have built-in voice keyers. I use two sound cards, one for SSB and one for two copies of wsjtx (two K3 radios). Fortunately the K3 has more than one audio input, but I had to build a level converter since only one input can be set as line-level.
Tor

    On Friday, September 20, 2024 at 02:01:15 PM CDT, Gerry Hull <gerry at w1ve.com> wrote:  

 Welcome, Tor.  Hopefully, many modern radios have USB sound cards, which can be setup for Digital modes.   When on SSB or CW, no cable switching is required.
73,
Gerry W1VE
On Fri, Sep 20, 2024 at 2:55 PM RT Clay <rt_clay at bellsouth.net> wrote:

 I've only been doing VHF contests for 10 years, but my observations:
Rule changes giving extra points for analog, activity hours, etc: these will have little or no effect, because to me it seems that many VHF contest operators simply do not operate to maximize their score. For example: staying on 50.313 when signals are loud; rovers staying on FT8 when they could run bands in 2 minutes on SSB; stations wasting 30 minutes to make or attempt one MS contact, when they could get more mults by working some easy 50/144 grids.
There are just too few people for the many bands and modes. Take a look at some of the rules for the European VHF contests. There you will find: analog/digital often are separate contests; often contests are single band; no EME in terrestrial contests; more contests but shorter duration. All these have the effect of concentrating the activity.
Setting up a station to quickly switch between FT8/SSB/CW is not easy technically (mic/audio switching; computer control conflicts wsjtx vs logging program; ptt switching; voice keyer; spectrum display). It took me a while to figure out how to do that. I think some guys (not just new operators) do not have an easy way to switch- they have to unplug/reconnect stuff every time they switch modes and therefore don't like to do it.

Tor N4OGW EM53

   On Friday, September 20, 2024 at 08:56:36 AM CDT, Gerry Hull <gerry at w1ve.com> wrote:  

 Activity hours are great.  For those that already use them, it's a done
deal.  How much activity does it generate *during a contest*?

The problem is there are a lot of new hams coming on the scene, and all
they see and want to do is FT8.
If we want to continue to enjoy VHF contesting, we are going to have to
educate.  It's not hard.  Most of it can be done by "doing".
If we say weak-signal every 30 minutes, that is going to lead to many more
QSOs than say 6 at 6, 2 at 2, etc.
SSB and CW, Weak-signal modes as we used to call them.

Digital modes were designed for a very specific purpose: VERY weak
signals.  The mode is being completely abused because people are lazy or
uneducated about the mode.
For those people who have been around 20 or 30 years and have massive
investments in weak-signal equipment, don't you want to use it in the way
it was intended?

People will say: If I go on SSB or CW, I won't do well in the contest.
 That's only true if only YOU do it.  We should agree as a contesting
community
that CW and SSB are awesome for VHF, as they always have.  If we do, we can
bring life back, and the excitement back, to VHFContesting.
What strategies we use to bring more activity is up to us.  I again stress
that rule change is probably not the answer.

SSB and CW are alive and well and thriving in HF contesting.  It  can be
the same way on 50MHz and above if we choose to do it.
Digital has a huge place in VHF contesting.  It just can't be all
consuming.  It does not make sense.

73,

Gerry W1VE

On Fri, Sep 20, 2024 at 9:05 AM Bob Turner <n2scj-lists at outlook.com> wrote:

> I still use them, especially on Sunday evening when its slower.  It's easy
> to remember.  6 at 6, move up one band per hour.  I now make sure to do SSB
> as well as FT8 during these times.
>
> 7 3  Bob
> N2SCJ
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: packrats-bounces at mailman.qth.net <packrats-bounces at mailman.qth.net>
> On Behalf Of Rick R
> Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2024 4:31 PM
> To: Gerry Hull <gerry at w1ve.com>; packrats reflector <
> packrats at mailman.qth.net>; vhf contesting <vhfcontesting at contesting.com>;
> Paul Bourque <pbourque at gmail.com>
> Cc: NEWS Reflector <newsvhf at mailman.qth.net>; Fred Stefanik <
> n1dpmfred at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Packrats] Activity hours
>
> For years, the Packrats published activity hours. They started about 6pm
> for 6m, 7PM for 2m, 8P 222, 9P 432, 10P 2G, 11P 3G, 12A 5&10G.
> We repeated with the same schedule for Sunday AM and PM. It worked for
> many years, although as a rover, I tried to run the bands whenever I could.
> It doesn’t work anymore and the trend as W2SJ detailed recently is start
> SSB on 6&2 and as soon as you work whomever is there and no other callers,
> go to FT8. Rick K1DS
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