I thrive on microwave QSO's, both in and out of contests. In this area
we have "microwave activity days" on the first Saturday of the month.
I have also been known to take trips to a hilltop on an early morning
to try to work someone on microwave bands if the Hepburn forecast
looks promising..
I always figured that if a station had those bands, they would enter
the class that included them and the people who didn't have those
bands would enter the limited classes. Maybe I'm wrong.
I have maybe half a dozen stations I can work on 2304 and two or three
on the higher bands. One is a Rover in the Chicago area; one is a
fixed station about 100 miles from me and another is a fixed station
about 120 miles from me. I can usually count on at least two of those
being active in a contest. I always take those bands with me when I
operate portable from a hilltop.
I built all my transverters and antennas. The transverters didn't come
out so expensive except maybe for 24 GHz. I think the rest cost at
most $150 apiece (plus a lot of time) for the 2 to 10 watt range. But
I'm a pretty good scrounger.
73, Zack W9SZ
On 2/22/15, James Duffey <jamesduffey@comcast.net> wrote:
> The ARRL VHF contests have a schizophrenic approach towards microwave
> activity. With the one hand, they seem to want to encourage microwave
> activity by awarding higher QSO points for the higher bands. With the other
> hand, they discourage microwave activity by promoting the limited classes,
> creating new three band classes and FM only classes. One would think that
> you can’t have it both ways, but apparently you can.
>
> Due to the higher points given to microwave QSOes, our current ARRL VHF
> contests are de facto microwave contests unless you enter the limited
> classes, at least when there is no sporadic E.
>
> But it is more than just the points question. It does little good to have
> more points for QSOes if there is no one to work on those bands. And when
> the limited classes are an option at little additional expense, that
> discourages microwave activity even further. And when the big multi stations
> drop microwaves that reduces incentive even further.
>
> The real question to ask is what is the goal to be accomplished with the
> additional points for microwave QSOes? If it is to encourage microwave
> activity, then the limited classes undermine this. If it is to reward the
> difficulty in making microwave QSOes, then that undermines activity on the
> lower bands by removing activity from them for the duration of the microwave
> QSO.
>
> Other questions worth asking are: Does it make sense to include microwave
> QSOes at all in a VHF contest like the June contest when there is a lot of
> sporadic E and activity on 6M? Does it make sense to simultaneously
> encourage microwave activity by awarding additional points for it and
> discourage it by implementing the various limited classes?
>
> I find it interesting how these discussions always end up about geography
> and level playing fields, even though those topics are not in the original
> question at all. - Duffey KK6MC
>
> --
> KK6MC
> James Duffey
> Cedar Crest NM
>
>
>
>
>
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