> To your first point, I don’t think that the increase in 6M activity is
> due entirely to casual ops using digital modes (FT8) instead of SSB
> and CW. For one thing, this year there was a significant increase,
> about 19% in the number of logs submitted in the contest over 2018
> while the total number of QSOs in the contest only grew by about 3%;
> essentially remaining the same.
I would love to see a comparison that doesn't also involve a corner of
the country getting clobbered by a storm, which unfortunately means
we'll have to wait another year. It seems difficult to me to separate
the two variables (FT8 vs. SSB, storm killing activity levels) and
determine what is responsible.
> If the digital mode ops are all casual
> they do a much better job of submitting logs than do the casual SSB
> ops.
Anecdotally, I can tell you that digital operators tend to confirm at
higher levels on LOTW than other users, and contesters tend to confirm
at lower levels than typical. I don't know if that corresponds to
people uploading their logs to the contest site, however.
> The actual number, as well as the fraction of QSOs on all bands 144MHz
> and above decreased significantly over 2018. This strongly suggests
> that the increase in digital (FT8) activity came at the expense of
> QSOs on the higher bands.
Yeah, I'm just wondering how much the storm over here played into
keeping activity on the higher bands down. People may have chosen to
not put up their more fragile loopers, or their rotors may have been
frozen in useless directions, or they could have simply seen the
forecast and decided to not bother.
> I am not sure what the answer is, but I fear that all the VHF contests
> will become dominated by 6M, not just the June contest when Es is in.
> Perhaps it is time to rethink the contesting paradigm. - Duffey KK6MC
I sure hope it doesn't turn out that way. It would be awful boring and
kill a lot of the interest I have in continuing to dump time and money
into the rover. I don't mind working digital modes into my operation.
I just don't want to see it become a one band show.
--
Chris Lumens - KG6CIH
Hike * MTB * XC Ski * Haskell
Research - Experimentation - Testing - More Testing
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