Winter reared its ugly head in this area. I operate Single-Op Portable in
these contests, with no antennas at home. So I had to sit this one out.
73, Zack W9SZ
On Tue, Jan 21, 2020 at 9:58 PM John Young via VHFcontesting <
vhfcontesting@contesting.com> wrote:
> So I have been reading the 3830 and ARRL Soapbox posts. The vast majority
> of posts include a lot of commentary on poor turnout, poor conditions, dead
> bands and weather difficulties. Some even question if its worth taking
> part in these contests.
> My experience and those of several others who worked FM in Northern VA or
> MD was very much the opposite. There was great activity from 2pm until 10pm
> Saturday and it wasn't what I would call slow (no 30 minute breaks between
> Q's) all the way up to 1 am. Even when I got back on the air at 0330
> Sunday there was activity to be had. I didn't work through to the bitter
> end (or should I say bitterly cold end) but from the private emails it
> appears it never got boring. Its not like we had great weather here by any
> stretch.
> What made it so much fun?
> Turn out and constant activity. Working hard to get a weak contact.Rag
> chewing with truckers all night to add points as they cross grids.Making
> scheds with FM and multi-band rovers along with big fixed stations at "long
> range".Passing contacts between stations to build each others scores.Making
> a Q with people who never imagined a 100 mile Q was possible on FM
> simplexHaving a paraplegic 15yr old build a tape measure yagi so he can
> make a QSO with you (2017).People dusting off rigs they have not used in
> years or going mobile to a nearby hill top to give you another contact or
> multi.
> A big part of what generated the activity was a coupe guys sending out a
> lot of emails to get people up on the air in our area. That has over time
> generated a lot of turn out, both casual operators, new fixed site
> contesters as well as regional FM or FM/SSB rovers.
>
> Was having fun this January just an FM thing? All our contacts are
> regional, propagation is not a big factor. There are no digital modes,
> clickety Q, clickety Q.Its just you, a microphone, a radio, a cable and an
> antenna. Pretty basic stuff.
>
> Did anyone else have a good time?Post something if you did. All that
> reading is pretty depressing right now.
> 73JohnKM4KMU
>
>
>
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>
>
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