Hello all.....The reason that the EU contests can be distance scored is
because they prohibit EME contacts in EU contests.
I make a very good percentage of all my grids via EME....that is the
only way that I can even remotely be competitive as I don't live in the
highly populated NE. Clearly, I do not believe that banning EME in VHF
contesting is the right thing to do. I would just pull the plug on VHF
contesting if EME were banned.....I would have no chance at all.
Now, where is the problem?? Well, once I entered the 2M Sprint when it
was distance scored. Guys on the East Coast made over 150 contacts and
I only made 28. However, the shortest of my contacts was 4500+ miles
and the longest was about 10,000 miles. Clearly, EME overwhelms any
tropo efforts as long as the metric is distance. ASIDE: I never did
get the certificate for that.....maybe just punishment??
Another thought.....a few meteor scatter contacts would completely out
distance a boatload of "local contacts". This would mean that, even if
EME were disallowed, VHF contests would turn into a MS contests....and I
don't think that is what we really want.
The problem with the current scoring formula is that is VHF contests are
actually "Microwave Contests". The QSO points for microwave contacts
are ridiculously high, especially in the January contest. In January,
one 2304 contact equals 8 2M contacts!!! I know that the original idea
here was to encourage folks to go on up into the microwave bands....and
that is a reasonable policy goal. However, the effect of this policy
has been to discourage the Rookies.....and these are exactly the folks
we are trying to attract.
I don't know the answer to all this....there will always be "problems"
with scoring and rules. In my opinion, the simplest rules are the best
rules. I believe that the Ad-Hoc Committee is moving in the right
direction and hopefully, will be able to implement their ideas. Someone
mentioned that a complete re-write of the VHF rules would be extremely
helpful....I agree with that completely.
73 Marshall K5QE
On 1/4/2015 10:22 AM, Keith Morehouse wrote:
Distance scoring has been tried in various VHF Springs. It shows....a
benefit to the normal high-population areas of the US (surprise !), except
maybe on 6...
Jay W9RM
Keith Morehouse
via Droid Inc2
On Jan 3, 2015 8:56 PM, "Dave Olean" <k1whs@metrocast.net> wrote:
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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