I'll give credit to whoever updated the rules for finally decriminalizing
announcing one's presence on a chat room for CQ VHF, but I seriously doubt that
whoever it was got any input from rovers about the time period.
CQ VHF was really too short already at 6 hours shorter than the ARRL majors.
Making it even shorter and starting so early is really going to cramp rovers
both in being able to position themselves in a distant rare grid at the start
and in the number of grids activated. This also makes records that much more
difficult to break, not that Wyatt's rover record wasn't already pretty much
untouchable.
Rovers drive (pun intended?) an enormous amount of VHF contesting activity, so
I can't see the time change having anything other than a negative effect on
participation and certainly scores.
As for the contest split, I'll try (almost) anything once, but no promises re:
2026...
By the way, John, N2NC, if you read this, as funny as it would be for me to
finish second in both Rover and Hilltopper in the same year, you have last
year's Hilltopper scores in this year's results article. :)
--NV4B/R
On Thursday, January 9, 2025 at 09:09:34 AM CST, David R Buckwalter via
VHFcontesting <vhfcontesting@contesting.com> wrote:
Not a rover. I gave up roving and portable operating back in the last
century. I now do all my contesting from my shack. My biggest issue is the
split, or two weekends. There is no way I would be able to participate two
different weekends. Life has may other things happening. I also operate
"all mode", SSB, CW and digital in all VHF contests. Splitting digital to a
separate weekend is idiotic. Why not keep it a single weekend and just split
the contest award categories from those that want analog modes only?
I have my 1985 Inaugural CQWW VHF WPX Contest Certificate hanging on my shack
wall. I've participated in some, not all since then, but this 2 weekends is
probably going to end it for me. I'll stick with the ARRL contests.
de K3SK
-----Original Message-----
From: VHFcontesting <vhfcontesting-bounces+k3sk=buckwalter.co@contesting.com>
On Behalf Of Jonesy W3DHJ via VHFcontesting
Sent: Thursday, January 9, 2025 9:35 AM
To: Tony Contratto <vhfcontesting@kg9ov.org>
Cc: Jonesy W3DHJ <mailserver@jonz.net>; vhfcontesting@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] 2024 CQWW VHF Results availalbe
On Wed, 8 Jan 2025, Tony Contratto wrote:
>As a rover (I’m obviously biased here), any serious effort in a VHF
>contest is a full weekend plus commitment. It may be different for
>fixed stations and/or the casual operator, but personally this has me
>deciding if I want to participate at all.
Rover here, too.
Well, the dates do not really bother me. But, THE TIMES!!!
I had to read the web page <https://cqww-vhf.com/rules/> several times to
believe it.
This means it's a Saturday-only contest for me.
And the earlier hours on Saturday do me no good.
I rarely ever had a "SSB/CW/FM" QSO before 9 AM local in any of the VHF
contests -- going back nearly 2 decades. Add to that the Local/regional VHF
SSB/CW/FM (contest) activity has collapsed over the last half-dozen years or so.
My preliminary, back-of-the-napkin plans would be to operate 1500z to
0200/0300z on Saturday only. If at all...
It seems like a good scheme to take SSB/CW/FM completely out of CQ VHF
contesting.
73
Jonesy
--
Marvin L Jones | W3DHJ | W3DHJ | https://W3DHJ.net/
Pueblo, Colorado | @ | Jonesy | __ linux FreeBSD
38.238N 104.547W | jonz.net | DM78rf | 73 SK
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