I think there is a general misconception that folks are against digital
modes and for the most part nothing is further from the truth. What Joe
Taylor and company have created is pretty spectacular and allows us to work
folks we normally couldn't. I'm not going to debate the ethics of it, we've
been using RTTY for years and no one has gotten up tight about it and I
don't know of anyone that can copy RTTY in their head.
Folks who are relatively new to VHF and most importantly VHF contesting need
to understand the full scope of it. In HF contesting, for the most part, you
operate 20-10 during daylight hours and 160-40 during darkness. Now of
course there is always exceptions and everyone realizes that. But if you
work someone during the day on 3 bands, the chances are you might work them
again in the evening/night on the other 3 bands if propagation cooperates.
In VHF contesting, there are few "known" band openings, maybe in June or
July you can assume 6m will open with Eskip but that's about it. Add to that
antennas on the VHF, UHF and microwave bands can get VERY sharp creating
what's known as the "search light effect" - if you're not pointed at them
you won't hear them. Something that isn't noticed on HF as much, especially
for folks running wire antennas, I'm not sure how many HF antennas have a 1
degree -3dB beamwidth and 30+ dB of gain which is the norm for contacts made
at 10GHz!
Whether you are a singleop, multiop or rover, normally the way you make the
most of the contest is to work someone on 6m or 2m and ask "do you have any
other bands" and if they do, you QSY with them and that nets the most
points. Now of course if 6m is wide open this is impractical, you have to
"make hay while the sun shines"! For rovers who spend countless hours on the
road during a contest this is one of the only things that makes the trip
worth while, to work as many different folks on as many different bands as
you can and we are ALL better off for the rovers! More importantly, it shows
the FCC by our logs that these bands that are under CONSTANT attach by
commercial entities that we are using them (need I remind anyone of the loss
of 220 - 222 MHz??).
Enter digital modes, especially FT8/FT4. We've had WSJT for many years and
MSK144 and the JTXX modes have been used for many years for meteor scatter
and EME work. These have never been an issue, normally you are in a chat
room or have a sked with someone and either the moon is up or it's not and
meteors are best in the morning or during high periods of shower activity,
pretty easy to predict, kinda like HF propagation. Working meteors is most
popular on 6m, 2m, some 135cm and little 70cm just by the nature of the
mode. With FT8, folks that have HF+6m rigs have learned that their antenna
tuner will tune their 40m dipole or their TH7 to 6m and they can make
contacts or folks living in HOAs (YUK!!!!) with attic antennas have found
they can work folks but not very well. And with all the hype of the long
haul 6m contacts to Eu and As, there are more folks getting on daily and
having had FT8 experience on HF, they know what to do.
Here is where the incompatibility starts to show up. First, you are limited
to 60 OSO's per hour with FT8 and finding folks on FT4 is almost
non-existent. So 6m opens to the west coast, you have no idea how long it
will be open, going to 50.150 on SSB you can run 120 per hour and eat a ham
sandwich at the same time, I've done it and I'm not that good. Get a K1HTV
or a K3MM and the sky is the limit.
Second, no band opening but you hear W1XYZ in FN31on 2m and you know that he
has 50MHz - 10GHz, you call them and work and tell them to QSY to 222.1 or
432.1 and go up from there until you can't hear them. If W1XYZ shows up on
FT8 and you work them, it is almost impossible to tell them to QSY and if
you do, how do they confirm they got your message and will meet you there?
If there is a band opening like this past September contest and you are
running your max at 60 per hour and 5 stations are calling you at once,
taking the time to craft a message in TX5 is crazy. On SSB you can just
announce listing 222.1 or 432.1. There were conditions all the way to Texas
in September but we worked very few on 222 or 432 due to the inability to
pass.
Folks that just have 6m and/or 2m probably don't understand some of these
operating issues. I've operated over 40 years now in VHF contests as a
singleop, as many multiops - the latest being K8GP and have operated many
times as a rover with my call and as K8GP/R with K1RA. I can tell you
without hesitation that the inability to pass will send more rovers away
than $5 per gallon gas prices! Andy and I maintain one of the best equipped
rovers around, 50MHz through 10GHz with 24GHz ready to add. Two pneumatic
masts, 500w on the lower 4 bands and BIG antennas but last September (2020)
we sat in FN00 at over 3000' ASL and mostly the only signals we heard were
on 6m and 2m FT8 and all of our UHF and microwave gear just sat.
I've seen several proposals and I'm not sure allowing multiple contacts per
band with different modes will fix the issues. I know outlawing FT8 is NOT
the answer, it is too valuable as a tool to loose. The only thing that makes
sense to me and doesn't exclude anyone is to have designated digital and
analog times i.e., top of the hour for the first 15 minutes is digital and
the rest analog or some variation. Folks would know when to listen for each
and you could pass on SSB/cw and if you weren't able to work someone on
SSB/cw, catch them at the top of the hour on FT8 and try.
There is no "one size fits all", everyone has their own agenda but if we
want VHF contesting to continue and help motivate folks to the UHF and
microwave bands, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY preserve these bands we had better
come up with something.
Terry - W8ZN
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