Hi Herb,
I worked you in my first VHF contest in 1962. It was the September VHF
QSO party. Actually my brother worked you. (We had to share our station, so
we took turns using different calls for each contest.) You had 327 QSOs in
25 sections. Arn K1WHT had 48 QSOs in 5 sections all on 144 MHz. We had just
gotten our licenses about a month earlier. I remember the rig. We had a 6360
transmitter at about 8 watts on AM, and a war surplus receiver that had a 24
volt dynamotor for the B+. The antenna was an 8 element Telrex yagi at about
30 ft fed with RG-59 surplus coax that looked a tad green inside.
I would have to agree with you and K1DY. The last thing we need is more
categories. Beyond that, I am unsure of what should be done. I am really
torn as to the right direction to take. After 52 years, I still love the
idea of VHF contests, as they build activity. I think all the rule changes
over the years has possibly diminished activity rather than helped it.
I would want to encourage activity in the more remote areas of the
country. Possibly distance scoring is a good idea. That coupled with
announcing rover locations and similar ideas could help those guys who
travel to the hinterlands. I also think that entirely new contests might be
organized to build activity. Surely, what we have been doing the last decade
has not worked. Maybe a cumulative effort over many weekends for shorter
time periods each weekend might be a possibility. That might discourage big
mountaintop efforts in favor of more streamlined operations. How about
scoring stations in certain areas with a higher point value? As an example,
draw a circle 200 miles from the center of major metro areas and assign a
higher point value to those stations beyond that circle. If I earned 1 point
for a close in contact and 10 points for working VE1SKY 350 miles away, you
can bet I would be looking for VE1SKY. Then imagine VE1SKY's score if he
could work a pile of 10 point contacts. He could be competitive. Scoring
could be done by utilizing 6 digit grid squares in software. That would
encourage people to aim their antennas away from the normal VHF activity
centers. I am just throwing out crazy half baked ideas. We need to shake
things up.What we have now is broken. For my part, I try to get on and have
fun each time.
I hope you don't quit VHF Herb. HF stinks in the summertime.
73
Dave K1WHS
----- Original Message -----
From: "Herb Krumich via VHFcontesting" <vhfcontesting@contesting.com>
To: "VHF Contesting Reflector" <vhfcontesting@contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2015 10:46 PM
Subject: [VHFcontesting] My 2 cents
As far as I am concerned, VHF contesting went down hill when the ARRL
caved and started having limited multi.Once that was done, small units of
stations, started leaving their microwave equipment at home.Little by
little it started the microwave downfall. It was a very bad idea.There are
far to many categories for so few stations availableI have depleted my
very large contest station after working VHF contest's for nearly 50
years.The only available bands I can now use are 144 and 432 which will
mainly be used for EMEJust my 2 centsHerb K2LNSMy spring antenna work will
be putting up a very large low band system
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