Marshall,
It shocked me that you would conclude that. But it succeeded in getting my
attention-hi.
Perhaps my sorry lot as a single op came from my experiences growing up with
ham radio. As a teenager I was fortunate to belong to some radio clubs that
did some contests- starting with Field Day (ok, not really supposed to be a
competition) and later a VHF contest group in Ohio that had some big gun
members. That was exciting, and humbling but inspiring. My lowly home
station with a 40' tower in a residential area and 25 watts on 6M was not
going to work a lot of Q's or win anything. But after seeing what could be
done, experiencing the thrill of contacting distant very weak stations, I've
then worked and worked over the decades to build up a better and better
station. If I had to live in a valley or condo, I would have taken a
different path- gone roving or joined a VHF contest club, built a remote
station, or taken up a different hobby or other type of radiosport. Does
every soccer player need to get a trophy even if they cannot really do too
well in that sport? Some of us play for the enjoyment and satisfaction of
what we have chosen to do.
I enjoy the ARRL VHF contest (aka competition) because I get to try out the
new things I have done since the last time and see if they really have
improved anything. Will that secondary antenna switching or remote preamp
really help? I still highly enjoy digging for, and working a weak signal
that I have found or that comes back to my CQ, whether it is my own grid or
another. Some folks think being in the NE makes it all easy. In fact what
it does is make it easy to log more big signals early on, but after that it
is dig, dig, dig, move stations to another band, decide where to point, and
when to sleep. Check your grids worked map and decide when to point that way
even if most of the ham population is in a different direction. I had quite
a few hours in the contest where I worked fewer than 5 contacts- but
sometimes one of those was a new distant multiplier because tropo conditions
favored that for a very short time. Then moving them to another band and
getting another mult there? Priceless! But you have to stay in the chair for
that to happen. And I get just as frustrated as everyone else by trying to
work a Q5 station in a distant grid that just cannot pull my low power
signal out of the noise on his end. Maybe if I had spotted his freq with the
note "New England calling you" he'd have beamed toward me? What's his cell
number?
During the past weekend I worked K5QE on 6M SSB during one of our sketchy
VHF E's opening. I was working as fast as I could to tune through the band
and work skip stations before they disappeared. The band seemed only open to
W4, but then I came across you, albeit not very strong. A few calls later,
you were in the log! All right! The next time I tuned through that frequency
your signal was gone and I never heard you again. To me it was very
satisfying, because "I did that!" No drugs, no skirting the rules. The
thrill of the hunt bagging a prize. If I had seen a spot of your 6M freq,
then I'd have known to look there, a click of the mouse I'd be there, likely
work you- ho hum....Or let the robo computer automatically go there and work
you.
Early Sunday morning while sipping that first cup of java, I put out some
WSJT calls the old fashioned way: "CQ N8RA 255". Would you believe I
actually got some answers? Exciting to me because I am a single op trying to
figure out where to be, what to do and the best way to get a good score.
This is the big difference between SO and MM where more modes and more bands
can be manned 24 hours.
I've never been called a curmudgeon, but perhaps an idea for a new operting
category? hmmmm....I like it...
73
Chet, N8RA
-----Original Message-----
From: VHFcontesting [mailto:vhfcontesting-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf
Of Marshall-K5QE
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 10:45 PM
Cc: VHF Contesting List
Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] Internet assistance
...I have posted in the past that the ARRL rules strongly discriminate
against the single op stations. For some reason, the rules don't allow
single ops to do ANYTHING. One wonders why they bother, considering all the
restrictions that they labor under...
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