There has been lots of feedback over the past years regarding analog-digital
and how best to return to the great years of analog activity. The ability to
make both analog and digital QSOs with the same station has been an important
suggestion for years. Scoring those QSOs differently has also been suggested
and is likely more controversial. Here in Southern Florida, it seems like
activity is gravitating more to digital on all VHF bands. I would certainly
welcome back more analog activity as it's fun and fast. (Try the 10-second FM
QSOs on the LEOs!) The CQWWVHF separate weekends for analog and digital modes
will be an experiment from which we will all learn. I recall that the DUBUS
digital EME contests on 144 and 432 were dropped after 2015 due to low
participation and log submission. I hope ARRL will give consideration to
anything that will facilitate more analog activity. 73, Rick K1DS
________________________________
From: newsvhf-bounces@mailman.qth.net <newsvhf-bounces@mailman.qth.net> on
behalf of Paul Bourque <pbourque@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 12, 2025 4:09 PM
To: Bob Bownes <bownes@gmail.com>
Cc: newsvhf@mailman.qth.net <newsvhf@mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [NEWSVHF] VHF Contests - Analog, Digital
I’m not speaking in any official capacity as the ARRL Contest Manager, but
I wanted to add my 2 cents. The VHF contesting community is a very small
subset of active hams, and segregating the SSB/CW operators from the
digital operators is not a good idea. My personal opinion is that It will
make the activity level in the analog weekends just abysmal (as if it isn’t
already.)
The digital operators should be encouraged to ALSO operate in contests
using the analog modes, not just be given their own sandbox to play in. We
need to find a way to make all modes be enjoyable for all participants.
Secondly, are big multiop stations like W2SZ going to want to set up their
stations on 2 weekends in June and September? That’s a lot of effort and
manpower. Let’s face it, we’re all not getting any younger! I know I
wouldn’t want twice the work in each of those contests. For that matter,
will a bigger fixed station like K1TEO or W8ZN want to be on the air in 2
separate weekends in both January, June and September? (Jeff and Terry-
will you?)
When will we schedule these separate contests? Look at WA7BMN’s Contest
Calendar and see just how packed every month is.
I for one think we should allow contacts on SSB/CW and digital to count for
points, not just one contact per station per band.
I was introduced to VHF contesting in the mid 90’s and loved it. I have a
lot more fun in VHF contests on the voice modes, and further reduction in
analog activity will likely see me participating less and less.
As a low power operator who has to set up at locations not at home, I find
it way too much effort to set up 4 bands to only make a handful of contacts
on phone. It’s getting to be just too much work for such little gain.
For example, I’ll likely not be participating in January VHF because I find
NAQP SSB way more fun, and I can do it from my shack and not freeze on some
hilltop somewhere.
I’d personally like to see how the activity plays out in CQ VHF this year
with the split mode contests before just making a knee-jerk reaction and
changing the ARRL events. Additionally, the CQ contests have also changed
the start time, and made it a 24 hour contest, which I think is a bad idea,
especially for a “worldwide” contest.
Again, the views expressed in this email are those of my own, and not of my
employer.
73,
Paul N1SFE
On Sun, Jan 12, 2025 at 3:00 PM Bob Bownes <bownes@gmail.com> wrote:
> My knee-jerk reaction is that asking to split our three major contest into
> six will not be received well by the league as it doubles the workload. But
> it’s worth putting on the table.
>
> > On Jan 12, 2025, at 13:44, CHRIS FAGAS via NEWSVHF <
> newsvhf@mailman.qth.net> wrote:
> >
> > Further to our January 4th meeting where we discussed the ongoing
> Analog/Digital challenge to VHF Contests, I just noticed that the 2025 CQ
> World Wide VHF Contest has just been SPLIT into two (2) separate Contests.
> The ANALOG (SSB/CW) VHF Contest will be July 5/6, 2025, and the DIGITAL
> (FT-x) VHF Contest will be July 19/20, 2025. Furthermore, CQ has
> additionally published the future dates for their now two (2) annual VHF
> Contests in 2026, 2027, and 2028.
> >
> > https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcqww-vhf.com%2F&data=05%7C02%7C%7C654a8c1b8bc5432ea08808dd334d6c80%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638723129806232976%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=xhfILuoT88EnK2oWxWWqjE7WLUQTzinQBlh9zwkAVNA%3D&reserved=0;<https://cqww-vhf.com/>
> >
> > As we consider alternative approaches for bringing back activity to the
> Analog modes for the three (3) ARRL VHF Contests, what CQ has done with
> their VHF Contest is a very good data point, and an example that should be
> referenced in our own recommendation. In my personal opinion, making the
> three (3) annual ARRL VHF Contests into six (6) annual ARRL VHF Contests,
> where Digital Ops can maintain three per year and Analog Ops can maintain
> three per year, might be the most compelling solution. To be sure, it gets
> us out of cherry picking whether January, June, or September should change,
> and then how it should change.
> > 73, Chris WB2VVV
> > ______________________________________________________________
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