Interesting! Kevin W9GKA did an excellent analysis of overall VHF contest
participation which he presented at the CSVHFS Conference in July. Some of
it is on the SMC website under "U/VHF Contest Info":
http://www.w9smc.com/SMC%20VHF/smc%20vhf%20page.htm
I attribute the growth in A class as due to the proliferation of HF rigs
that also have 50 MHz on them these days. It appears the Rover entries have
pretty much held steady.
I've mostly entered in the Q category. Sometimes when the weather cooperates
this category is fun (like in June and September this year). Sometimes it's
not so fun, as when thunderstorms, ice storms or blizzards hit you. I recall
years when the January contest brought ice storms and I stood outside the
car putting up antennas in it anyway. This year in January I set up my
antennas in a blizzard and somehow managed to keep them from getting blown
away. I think those weekends aren't for the faint-hearted.
73, Zack W9SZ
On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 6:54 PM, James Duffey <jamesduffey@comcast.net>wrote:
>
> On Dec 4, 2009, at 12:08 PM, John Geiger wrote:
>
> > What have other entry classes done? Have they grown at the same rate, at
> a faster rate, or have they actually declined?
> >
> > 73s John AA5JG
>
> Here is a table of activity in all classes since 2001. The data is harder
> to extract from contests before 2001 as it is not collated on the ARRLweb
> site and is not always explicit in the QST write ups.
>
> Activity by class, June VHF QSO Party
>
> Year A B L M Q R RL UR All
> 2009 695 206 56 44 33 60 37 5 1168
> 2008 660 200 52 32 34 61 26 8 1073
> 2007 477 162 62 38 23 98 860
> 2006 610 184 81 39 39 96 1049
> 2005 468 166 47 38 31 92 842
> 2004 412 155 43 37 28 91 766
> 2003 445 157 55 38 31 92 818
> 2002 319 157 49 36 27 84 672
> 2001 253 243 62 33 25 59 675
>
> I hope that the formatting has held up. Best viewed with monospaced font.
>
> I have commented on the Rover participation growing at a steady rate and
> being relatively steady while the total contest participation has varied
> widely. The multi category shows an even more steady participation during
> the time period, and I suppose for the same reason, with a large investment
> in equipment, setup time, travel to an operating site, and operators time;
> multis are more likely to participate year after year to get the most out of
> their investment and are more likely to submit a log given the investment
> made in the contest. The limited multi class has shown wider swings, but
> still is a pretty steady contributor to the contest. The single op low power
> shows the most variation in participationm more than a factor of 2, in the
> data above. I suppose that is to be expected, if the bands are open, there
> are a lot of logs submitted by these participants, but if 6M is not open,
> they probably go do something else for the weekend, or just work the locals
> and not submit a l
> og.
>
> The QRP Portable participation is steady, but numbers are small. These are
> a dedicated bunch. I will have to try that class some day.
>
> The rise in participation in low power single ops in the last 2 years is
> interesting after a long period of lower but constant participation. I
> suppose more of those guys who are chasing FFMA are getting linears to help
> in the grid hunting and finding out that power does open a dead 6M band with
> a variety of scatter modes.
>
> Your interpretation may be different.
>
> The offer of my prepared presentations on beginning VHF operating and
> Roving are still open. Use these as a basis to stir up some interest in the
> local club. Give a VHF talk in May. - Duffey
> --
> KK6MC
> James Duffey
> Cedar Crest NM
>
>
>
>
>
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