I blame most of the weekend on very bad propagation and mostly general lack of participation. This was both, the worst propagation in 30 years I ever remember during a VHF contest. And, it was also m
Decreasing activity has hurt some of us greatly. It is painfully obvious that there are not as many stations active as their used to be. Or at the very least, fewer well equipped / high power station
I think there's a few factors.... 1. FT8 operations as the "norm" have driven a number of people away from VHF contesting. I for one am one of those people.... Now with the analog only category it se
VHFrs, IMHO FT8 has become the dog to kick as an excuse for contest capable hams to decline to participate in contests. They have become disgruntled that they no longer get pileups where they can wor
Author: Josef 'Jeff' Sipek <jeffpc@josefsipek.net>
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2022 11:55:39 -0400
I think another way to put it, is that correlation does not imply causation. Anyway, I thought I'd chime in with a new ham perspective. I got my license two years ago which means that I got to build
Fred you are SO YOUNG!!!!!! bill ________________________________ From: VHFcontesting <vhfcontesting-bounces+callbill=hotmail.com@contesting.com> on behalf of Fred Stefanik <n1dpmfred@gmail.com> Sent
Jeff, it is true that it is costly but in general it has gotten less expensive. I was licensed in 1981+/- when I was in Jr. High and most if not all of the new HF rigs didn't even cover 6m. There wer
When you REALLY get hooked on it, you want more and more bands. I started out by building a 2m transverter in 1990. Then added 50 MHz. Then added 432. Then added 222. All homebrew transverters and an
In my view approx 20 to 25 years or so ago there seemed to be more options for out of the box VHF / UHF gear. I recall both Icom and Yeasu had affordably priced HF/VHF/UHF gear, plus more VHF oriente
Also re brick amps. Maybe I have been lucky with mine. I can accept there may be issues at times with some of them (and this may also be true for other products as well.) In my view sharing experienc
Hello Zack, It was heartening to read your response to the activity conundrum. You were the only one who mentioned building anything!! I got started in ham radio as a school kid with no money. In fac
One more thought.. In my experience there does seem to be a general lack of patience on the part of some newcomers to VHF and up weak signal operating and contesting. Some HF operators have commented
Author: Josef 'Jeff' Sipek <jeffpc@josefsipek.net>
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2022 17:20:57 -0400
The Q5 transverter looks really nice, but it doesn't help with the "new ham, unsure which part of the hobby will be fun long-term" aspect of it. That's what I was trying to get at. The 9700 also seem
Author: Josef 'Jeff' Sipek <jeffpc@josefsipek.net>
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2022 17:45:37 -0400
I get the itch and I don't consider myself "REALLY hooked" :) ... Earlier this year, I started tinkering with circuits with the intention of making *something* radio related. Maybe the something shou
W1GHZ has some excellent designs for transverters from 902 MHz to 10 GHz. The articles are all on his website. And the pc boards he supplies for them are all very inexpensive! The parts are also easy
So for a new ham pick up a good used FT847 or similar for about $600 and you'll have 100w on 160 through 6 and 50w on 144 and 432....all modes repeater offsets etc etc.... 73 Fred N1DPM _____________
Well I think FT8 is a problem when it comes to passing and the "fix" that was installed earlier this year is not a good answer. FT8 does make working weaker stations easier especially if the other op
I was the main two meter op at W2SZ. I am not opposed to FT8 it is an advantage to those with no other advantage. That said, it is huge time suck, where SSB and CW QSOs can take as little as 10 secon
Author: Josef 'Jeff' Sipek <jeffpc@josefsipek.net>
Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2022 09:52:23 -0400
It's been a while since I looked at W1GHZ's designs, so I should look again. Thanks & 73, Jeff (AC1JR) _______________________________________________ VHFcontesting mailing list VHFcontesting@contest
Author: Josef 'Jeff' Sipek <jeffpc@josefsipek.net>
Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2022 10:01:22 -0400
Not a bad choice. One of the questions I had when I was shopping for my first radio was about how often are new radios released. Even high-end electronics tend to get obsoleted on yearly basis, so it