[ADXA] VHF contest

Tue Jun 15 16:10:13 EDT 2021

You do have a lousy antenna, and you're WEAK also.

K5UR told me to say that!   :-))))

ZN

On 2021-06-14 13:07, Jay Bromley wrote:

> Hi Bill and ADXA,
> 
> That is nice to know as I thought it was me and my lousy antenna!  
> Every time I saw someone in the -10 range and below I would think, oh 
> know another busted call.  While working the contest I would look up 
> some calls via N1MM/QRZ.com and read the station's bio.  One station 
> logged me over on QRZ and we had not finished the exchanged!
> 
> Then I would call folks accidentally not in the contest.  Most seem to 
> be OK with that.  I wish the exchange was more thought out so you would 
> work both stations in and out of the contest with the same 
> report/exchange.  A few got huge up wanting a bonified signal report!
> 
> Then there is that exchange business with WSJT/N1MM.  If you are 
> calling CQ and they call you, they already have your grid.  So your 
> response with R Grid is merely saying your received them or in multiple 
> calls going back to that station only.  IMHO, is somewhat redundant.  
> But in all contest they want an actual exchange and FT8 is no different 
> with the "R Grid".  If they respond with RR73 and you receive that, the 
> log window comes up.  Most of the time I would never see them again 
> after I would send the R Grid report.  Sometimes I would see them 
> calling CQ after not receiving their "RR73" and wonder, do I log them 
> or not?  I am sure I did this wrong, but I moved on and didn't log 
> them. I would even repeat the exchange and sometimes they would come 
> back with RR73, some would not. Even on the "Band Activity" window or 
> waterfall many times the station would be gone after seeing them well 
> above S/N of zero.  I know one can do manual "Log QSO" under the Band 
> Activity Window.  Maybe I should have been doing this, especially with 
> the ones that went back to calling CQ?
> 
> When you look up various digital operators on QRZ.com everyone seems to 
> have a pet peeve on confirming the report with a RR73/73 or not.  Then 
> there is a Fox/Hound mode where you never send back a 73 to them.  The 
> report was made and that all that is necessary in that case, but I wish 
> for a standard for all to go by so more Qs are in the log accurately.  
> Or a better way to say this, I wish everyone dance the same way.  
> Making it easier and consistent for all involved.  When one compares 
> against ClubLog or other online logs, one can be in the log one way, 
> but not the other.  Then another op will do it totally different.
> 
> Then like you said, many of the guys knew the software would go back to 
> calling CQ after receiving RR73.  Unless you manually sent your 73 
> which in my case took two to three extra mouse clicks.  When things 
> were slow I would do this just to be sure.  Except for a few times, 
> mine never would send a 73 unless I reengaged the "Enable Tx" button 
> and clicked on the 73.  It would just go back to calling CQ after the 
> log window is closed assuming you hit the Tx button again.
> 
> I bet as far as log accuracy is concerned, this contest probably ranks 
> near the bottom, especially on digital?  Mine included, but I always do 
> my best to finish the QSO .
> 
> A ton of folks will say, well just get off of digital.  Funny after the 
> contest I did a look up on "Spot Collector" and a ton of folks flagged 
> as FOC members were only on FT8.  In fact I had at one point a whole 
> screen was completely solid with only FOC CW guys, I didn't think there 
> were that many?  I wish now I had saved that to a jpg.  It's hard to 
> get off of Digital and back to SSB and CW when the action is up the 
> band on digital.
> 
> Oh well I finished up and uploaded to the ARRL contest logs and LOTW.  
> I enjoyed the contest overall, but more work than necessary and folks 
> continue to say>>>> I go to bed with my smart phone, remote in and work 
> DXCC/WAS over night!  Well they are better op than me!!
> 
> What I enjoyed the most was seeing folks I knew and met over the years 
> on the air.  Also trying to figure out the propagation and 
> experimenting with software and rig setup.  At the end, I turned off 
> the rig's preamp and that seem to help me work or call only the ones 
> that could finish the QSO.  That sure seemed to help complete the 
> contact.  However I normally during regular openings don't have a 
> problem using a preamp 2 on the Icom.  Also enjoyed the extreme 
> groundwave early in the morning.  There seems to be no colored squares 
> during this time on DXMaps.  So the only propagation mode I know of is 
> groundwave.
> 
> I did see Sean KX9X totals on FB and noticed he had quite a few SSB and 
> CW contacts.  I don't think he was running much power, maybe even QRP?  
> Like I said in a previous post I would keep an eye down the band, but 
> didn't see much.
> 
> Anyway thank for the info Bill, I sure appreciate it and others 
> comments on the 6m test!
> 
> 73 de jay/w5jay..
> 
> From: adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net <adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On 
> Behalf Of BILL KENNAMER
> Sent: Monday, June 14, 2021 9:02 AM
> To: Dennis Schaefer <dennisw5rz at gmail.com>; w5zn at w5zn.org
> Cc: ADXA <adxa at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: Re: [ADXA] VHF contest
> 
> I only operated 6m, don't have tower space for my 2M antenna. My 
> impression was that people were wasting propagation with FT8. 
> Throughput is much too slow. I only operated part time, and missed some 
> of the better band opening time, but my rates were decent (up to 70/hr) 
> on phone and CW, and about 15/hr on FT modes. Harder to make contacts 
> on FT too. If a station calling CQ was less than 00, they didn't seem 
> to be able to decode me at all. WSJT operation is also somewhat clunky 
> in N1MM, sometimes it would send 73 message, sometimes it would go out 
> of auto sequence after exchanging grids, which would be ok if the other 
> ops knows that exchanging grids is all that's necessary.
> 
> Basically, this contest was more fun before FT8.
> 
> FUV
> 
> On Monday, June 14, 2021, 7:51:24 AM CDT, w5zn at w5zn.org <w5zn at w5zn.org> 
> wrote:
> 
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