My first contest on SSB was in 2016 as one of the 6m/1.25m operators with W4IY.
I loved it. Every time I sat in the chair I was busy as a one armed paper
hanger, running during the good hrs and doing S&P in the slow ones. It was
never dull. I have worked at least one contest a year with W4IY since then. I
love spinning the rotor using dx maps to find "the cloud" to run a new bearing
or go S&P. It doesnt get better than working a young kid in LA via double hop
on hand held home brew 3el Yagi-Uda.
Incresingly every year since then FT8 has sucked a lot of the fun out of SSB
PH, especially on 6m. As you have all noticed activity is down. I was whining
to Dave, K1RZ and he set me straight, "FT8 requires new strategies".
I thought about Daves words all weekend, especially Saturday night when I was
awake in the tent saying to myself "I will never do this again." SOFM is old
skool fun, just you, the radio and swinging the beam and higher PH rates on FM
(when I do my email blast) compared to SSB. I spend my work days clicking a
mouse, be damned if I am going to bust my tail setting up a remote multi-OP
only to click a mouse for 2 days on FT8.
Strategy. Strategy Strategy.
Sunday after the duct to the NE went away I sent FT8 messages after the 6m Q
asking strong stations to QSY to 2M PH or in some cases to 2m FT8. Only one
taker, but it's a start, maybe it will catch on? When FT8 6m & 2m new stations
dried up Sunday I ran S&P on 2m and 432, a few more contacts but nothing
exciting.
Then I jumped over to FM and woke up the world. Regional FM operators wondered
where I had been all weekend (despite not sending out an email blast and
although I was calling as W4IY my voice was recognized as KM4KMU) and I had a
very nice 3 or 4 band run with many stations on FM.
FT8 was a great grid getter but FM had a better rate. Next year I will send
out my normal FM email blast but focus it on the Sunday NFL doldrums. 4 or 5
hours working 200+ stations will add lots of Q's even if it adds no grids it
will give a much higher score. Strategy.
I still dont like FT8, but I dont hate it anymore. It has its place. We can
still set Scheds, alert the world to our presence and work lots of stations.
FM is my forte and I will bring it to the table next year as a "strategy" to
maximize the score. You will find very few FM operators on FT8.
Thank you Dave. I wont be selling my radios anytime soon.
73
John
KM4KMU
With the advent of FT8
On Monday, September 23, 2019 Stephen Hewlett via VHFcontesting
<stevehewlett@verizon.net> wrote:
K5QE,
I read your post on Digital and Q Arrangement Contesting with interest. I
couldn't agree more with your first four paragraphs ... they are very well
written, logical, and make sense to me. It is the fifth, and final, paragraph
that I'm not in complete agreement with.
Subjective qualifiers such as "better", "happier", "problems", and whether or
not something is "broken" are, like beauty, in the eyes of the beholder. Not
all small stations (I am one of the very small stations) are happier nor are
some of the middling to larger stations, as evidenced by some of the posts on
this reflector. I suppose it is easy to write off contrary opinions in favor of
legacy approaches to contesting as being held by Luddites who refuse to
modernize and get with the program; but that ignores the subjective factors. As
I mentioned in a previous post. some of us prefer to do the communicating
ourselves rather than to by-and-large watch our computers work other computers,
are sole contribution being a few mouse clicks here and there. People engage in
VHF contests for different reasons and not everyone who does so is solely
interested in maximizing their score and hoping to win something or place well.
Some of us enjoy using our traditional operating skills w/o computer assistance
and don't derive much joy out of the computer approach. And some of us enjoy
using and working on older radios that are not easily, if at all, linked to
computers.
I personally think there should be separate categories in the big VHF contests
for traditional modes and digital modes. One could use both modes and have a
score in each mode, plus an overall score. As an analogy, chess tournaments now
bar the use of computers (including cell phones) and those caught with them are
forfeited and banned. There is a good reason for this as no chess player can
successfully compete with modern chess playing software. There are separate
chess tournaments held for chess computers/software and their handlers.
73, Steve N4NIV
-----Original Message-----
From: Marshall-K5QE <k5qe@k5qe.com>
To: vhfcontesting <vhfcontesting@contesting.com>
Sent: Sun, Sep 22, 2019 10:18 pm
Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] Fwd: Digital and Q arrangement contesting
Hello everyone interested in this topic: The essence of legacy
contesting is "spin the dial and turn the antenna" and hope that you can
find someone to work. Legacy contesting(HF contesting) is all about how
you find stations not about how you work stations. This is only a
workable solution, because there is a seemingly endless parade of little
stations to work on HF--think 100W and a dipole on 20M or 40M. In the
world of weak signal VHF, especially where the digital modes are
concerned, you can "spin the dial and turn the antenna" and you will not
find anyone to work(or at least very few).
JT65 digital EME signals are VERY weak, most of the time. If you can
actually hear a signal with your ear, it is a strong one. You can tune
the 2M EME band and hear one or two stations, but if you let WSJT "look"
for signals, there might be dozens of stations there. What I am trying
to say is that "spinning the dial and turning the antenna" will not do
very much. Actually, in the case of EME, you know where to point the
antenna. The EME chat room(s) will let you know who is on, what
frequency they are on, and what sequence. This is critical information
for stations that are quite workable, but below the noise level.
Meteor scatter signals are often somewhat stronger than EME signals.
But they are completely random in time. So, you can "spin the dial" and
you will not hear anything, so you continue up the band. A few seconds
later, a big burn occurs, but you are now not listening on the frequency
where the burn happened. The same can be said for turning the antenna.
You may be pointed out west and then decide to turn the antenna slowly
to the east. That is when a ping will occur out west. The situation
for meteor scatter is somewhat better than EME, because by agreement
there are now established "watering holes" where folks hang out for
digital meteor scatter, at least for 6M and 2M. Still, it really helps
to know that W7XYZ/R is in DN12, calling CQ on 50.265MHz.
FT8 is somewhat similar to digital meteor scatter(MSK144). Signals are
weak, often below what can be heard with the ear. So, "spinning the dial
and turning the antenna" is not going to work. Only because we have the
agreed upon watering holes and the chat rooms can we figure out where
anyone is....and what sequence they are on.
Several years ago, the ARRL removed the legacy HF type rules from VHF
contesting. The result has been a renaissance in VHF contesting. The
contests are much better now than under the old, restrictive HF type
rules. The rovers are MUCH happier as are the smaller stations who now
have a chance to maximize the potential of their stations. There were
numerous problems with the old HF style rules for the VHF contests. I
don't know of any problems now. Unless some serious problem can be
found, LEAVE THE RULES ALONE! Don't try to fix something that is NOT
broken.
73 Marshall K5QE
On 9/23/2019 1:20 AM, Mike (KA5CVH) Urich wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 22, 2019 at 6:27 PM Dennis Allen <N9TZL@outlook.com> wrote:
>
> To me it has removed the radio related skills that one had learned to
> locate other stations and make Q's. There just are not allot of guys
> looking around trying to make Q's as before because they are on chat
> rooms and such making arrangements to make Q's instead of being on the
> radio which to me has greatly hurt VHF/UHF contesting!! It has turned
> into a computer social operating contest not a radio operating
> contest!!
>
> Mike wrote
>
> I tend to largely agree. "To me" ... there there is nothing more
> gratifying than spinning across the dial ... hearing that weak signal
> work another station. You strain to listen to them work two maybe
> three other stations so you can pull out the call and grid so you know
> you've got them right and them make your call. You may have to call
> them several times before they pull you out of the noise but when
> you've completed the Q and you are proud of your abilities to listen
> into the noise pull out the info, and repeatedly call them until you
> make the exchange.
>
> Now "that's" a Q
>
> --
> Mike Urich KA5CVH
> http://ka5cvh.com
>
> STX ASEC - Training
> PIO Harris County ARES
>
> We may be Volunteers,
> But we're professional.
>
>
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