Jay,
How about we really bite the bullet and have a contest for 6m only much
like the 10m contest? The other thing I keep hearing is 6m regardless of
mode, especially in June, is killing 2m and above. If there are E's no one
wants to work any other bands. The CQ 6&2 contest may already be filling
that niche but, hey, VHF contesiting has bigger problems than just FT8.
Several other writers have done a pretty good job in this thread of
pointing those out.
On SSB/CW - in most case most of the time in 2020 at least below the
microwaves, don't we really mean SSB? CW has not been required for a
license for 30 years now. A bunch of us ole guys (I was licensed in 1962)
know it and use it The newer hams some learn it, many don't. That's just
another horse that has left the barn a ham generation ago.
I liked your post - there is some serious thinking going on in this thread.
My first phone rig in 1962 was a Heathkit Twoer and I still remember r
the night I worked Portland from Seattle on that little radio. I have
liked VHF every since.
Johnny
On Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 5:15 PM Jay RM <w9rm@calmesapartners.com> wrote:
> I started out answering a private email, but then thought this might be
> better 'out there'.
>
> FT modes are "out of the barn", loose in the wild and have wide acceptance,
> so you can't look the other way or ban them - that would not reflect well
> on the contest community. Education will not work, as the people who need
> the education on how to contest (..just run the rate !) don't care - they
> are just there for the Q's, not the score. Contesters mostly know they are
> hurting their score by having to work everyone on FT8, but they need to get
> the Qs, even if it's much slower than "the old days". The individual
> contester need to decide whether he/she wants to.
>
> I don't know what would work to bring people back to faster rate modes.
> Personally, I think the days of 200+/hour on 6M E are over. I have a
> single suggestion that I havent put a lot of thought into, but it might
> lead somewhere.
>
> SInce the FT8 boom has two main effects, one, lowering Q totals and run
> rate on 6 and, two, depopulating the bands above 2M, let's either shunt FT8
> modes off to a separate contest or category for JUNE ONLY. June is where
> all the Qs on 6 are made AND June is arguably where you see the least
> activity above 2M, since it's likely everybody is busy on 6 to a greater
> degree than in January or September. If we need to kill off digital meteor
> scatter in June by simply saying NO digital, fine. BTW, I'm a HUGE user of
> digital meteor scatter and have been since the very first FSK441 version of
> WSJT. But, I would accept not having it if it brought back SSB/CW ops.
>
> January and September can remain status quo. FT8/4 was ready made for 6M
> with weak signals (I.E. little or no sporadic E) and the need for digital
> meteor scatter is much greater for the same reason.
>
> If the activity in June dries up because of the proposed change, we can
> still call it a successful experiment, go back to allowing ALL modes and
> acknowledging the death of SSB/CW on VHF.
>
> -W9RM
>
> Keith J Morehouse
> Managing Partner
> Calmesa Partners G.P.
> Olathe, CO
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>
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