Good writeup, but I’m not at all pessimistic. Give it time. 2m will again be
the band of choice in January VHF once people realize they can use FT8 there,
specifically the national calling frequency of 144.174. No need to do anything
to the WSJT-X software as custom 13 character free-form messages are already
available for that purpose, eg. “QSY 50313” would do the trick. And don’t
forget the availability of chat rooms during VHF contests to help folks find
each other.
I think the primary reason ops were hanging out on 6m FT8 was for the chance to
score a quick multiplier when the freak, short-lived Es pops up. There were
quite a few of these in the recent January contest. Very doubtful these could
be exploited with traditional analog modes. The best contesters are going to
use all available tools to maximize their scores and having another one in the
arsenal simply makes things more interesting. Exciting times ahead, yes, even
on the higher bands.
-FKO
> On Jun 18, 2019, at 7:43 PM, James Duffey <JamesDuffey@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> The results writeup for the January 2019 VHF Contest are now on line:
>
> <
> https://contests.arrl.org/ContestResults/2019/Jan-VHF-2019-FinalFullResults.pdf
> >
>
> The digital modes, in particular FT8, played a major role in the January
> contest, increasing the logs submitted significantly. But the overall QSOs
> made in the contest remained the same. So, those additional digital QSOs came
> from the higher bands. I think this is not good. Please read my comments on
> this in the writeup and think about what it means for the future of VHF
> contesting, if you like that future, and what can be done to address the
> continued erosion of the bands above 144MHz in contesting.
>
> Thanks for all who participated in the January contest. - Duffey KK6MC
>
>
> James Duffey KK6MC
> Cedar Crest NM
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