ARRL September VHF Contest - 2021
Call: W3SO
Operator(s): W3SF W3XOX W3IDT
Station: W3SO
Class: Limited Multi-Op HP
QTH: WPA
Operating Time (hrs): 15
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 179 46
2: 197 68
222:
432:
903:
1.2:
2.3:
3.4:
5.7:
10G:
24G:
-------------------
Total: 376 114 Total Score = 42,864
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
Folks, let's face reality: VHF contesting is NOT what it has been for the past
couple of decades. The trend - increasing use of FT8, decreasing use of SSB and
CW - during the past couple of years is now complete. Unless there is a very
large 6m Eskip opening, as may occur in June, VHF contests are now FT8 contests.
Good or Bad? That is a subjective judgment.
For the first time that I can remember in my 65 or so years of being mostly a
contester, I quit a major contest from boredom and maybe an element of protest:
After a 40 minute stretch Sunday afternoon with NO contacts on either 6m or 2m I
quit. The w3so trustee, Kevin, w3xox, - a somewhat newer contester - was willing
to go some more, but an offer of an early Thai dinner persuaded him, too.
He did have a very nice (Tropo?) opening to the TX/LA area on 2m FT8 early that
morning from our mountaintop in WPA - while 6m was getting repeated
"watchdog runaway timeouts" on FT8.
The first hour on Saturday produced about half our combined total of 100 SSB
contacts. From then on we adhered to our "(~10 minutes) SSB at the top of
the even utc hour, (~5 minutes) CW the top of the odd utc hour" protocol.
That netted 1 lonely CW contact, and two or three SSB contacts at best each hour
(and, of course, "wasted" many minutes of FT8 time).
PARTICIPATION - the number of stations on the air - may be up by some measure,
but ACTIVITY - the number of contacts possible - is down considerably. By Sunday
afternoon, there were a dozen or two (already worked) stations calling CQ on
each FT8 cycle, and no responses to our own CQs. Perhaps activity would improve
some during the evening, but my patience was gone.
About 18 months ago I circulated a discussion / proposal document which argued
for multiple contacts per band - one each on SSB, on CW, and on any form of
Digital on 6m and 2m (and one SSB/CW and one Digital above 2m) was my preferred
structure. Among the various "pro" and "con" emails, either
direct or on various reflectors, the "let's wait and see what happens"
attitude seemed persuasive. Well, we've waited and seen: VHF contests are now
effectively FT8 contests.
It is now no longer, Good or Bad? It is now a reality.
Unless changes are made - and made very quickly - to encourage SSB and CW
contacts, VHF Contesting will be exclusively FT8 contests from now on.
(End personal rant)
Robert F. Teitel, W3IDT
Score submitted for the Wopsononock Mountaintop Operators, W3SO
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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