"...the 'ground hog day' reporting in QST that glorifies the same ole boys
every contest." - W7MY
As I write this, I'm a mere 15 miles north of Punxsutawney, PA, home of the
famous groundhog. So I better be careful what I say!
Perhaps I could set up a rover site at Gobbler's Knob (FN00mw), where Punxs'y
Phil makes his prediction every February 2nd. Sadly, its only 1600' MSL, with
2100' ridges all around.
More to the point, your issue with the perception of "East Coast bias" is
accurate. Where I am right now, I could call CQ on 2-meter SSB for days --
months really -- and go completely unheard unless there is an opening or a
contest.
There is no interest in VHF SSB in these parts, and even though I founded the
major ham radio club here 34 years ago, I can't stimulate one little bit of
interest. The mindset around these parts is too strongly geared to channelized
FM operations, not too far removed from the CB comfort zone of most of the
newer hams (and the old timers are becoming Silent Keys at a tragic and
alarming rate!)
During the work week, when I'm at home in Pittsburgh, there are a handful of
weak signal enthusiasts, but they gave up listening to nothing years ago. So
once again, there is precious little activity outside of nets, band openings
and contests. Further, I'm limited as to the size of antennas I can put up
before some yuppie notices and the local code enforcement people come knocking.
I could just go to my club station, W3KWH, but then I'm just using somebody
else's radios and antennas, and that's just not my cup of tea. And still, there
are pretty few others to talk to outside of openings and contests.
So I can relate to your plight quite well, as my Pittsburgh QTH is essentially
a midwestern city (sociologically and geographically true!), and the sparsely
populated Falls Creek QTH I must visit every weekend is as isolated as the
Rocky Mountain states.
...
What I am driving at is that VHF operation is a completely different animal
than HF. Contesting is a rare period of high activity levels, punctuated by
months of no signals. Except along the Atlantic seaboard, where favorable
geographic conditions permit VHF-DX communications frequently, all year long.
This allows people to maintain a higher level of interest.
Additionally, the coastal population density is extremely high, and many hams
will resort to VHF+ since they don't have room or permission for HF antennas in
their crowded neighborhoods.
Finally, for years, East Coast clubs with an interest in VHF weak signal work
have been doing a great job of converting newcomers to their cause, so the East
Coast VHF culture still thrives.
My biggest roving complaint is that all the East Coast home stations that allow
the big guns to run up big scores never listen for pipsqueak rover signals like
me. They have no reason to -- the effort it would take them to actually listen
for me would only net them one or two grid multipliers they couldn't get
otherwise, but going to FM allows them to get hundreds of full-quieting local
Qs for much less effort. So after the first two hours of a contest, I may as
well pack it in and go to the movies. The only people I work after my first
grid are the "East Coast Groundhog Day" big guns, and the die-hard home
stations 200-400 miles away in the South and Midwest.
So it's not just you or me. The Eastern Seaboard has some unique attributes
that are favorable to causing larger numbers of hams to be active on VHF than
anywhere else in the country -- and perhaps even the entire world.
73 de Joe, W3BC
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