Joel, it's apparently worse than what I experienced, if some of the online chats are based in fact.  A confusing mess for sure.  Some guys were switching back and forth from NA VHF to normal FTx operation just to get a guy off their back and stop calling.  

I ran it for a couple of hours and stopped.  Did a bunch of other stuff and came back later in the evening and found it no better organized.  I checked it again on Sunday and was not impressed.  As 6m was not very active, I had no desire to continue.  I think I had a total of 10 contacts and probably 2 or 3 were not using the proper exchange formats.  

I'm so glad it wasn't on Friday as 6m would have been a to disaster and I might not have gotten the new grids at all.  BTW another one has confirmed so I'm sitting at 90 until another massive opening.  

73's
George - WB5JJJ


4


On Mon, Jun 6, 2022 at 9:11 AM <w5zn@w5zn.org> wrote:

Thanks for the report, George.

I've never been active in digital contests but hoped this would be a good operating event. Hopefully after a couple of runs it will improve and folks will become comfortable with it.

73 Joel W5ZN


On 2022-06-04 15:30, WB5JJJ wrote:

Of course I gave today's new ARRL International Digital contest the "ole college try", but I found the operation by many operators to be less than up to par.  Plus, 6m was not anything like Friday to boot.  Other bands were typical.  
 
1.  Many were not using the proper contest software for the DIGITAL  ONLY version of a long-existing DX contest.  
2.  Some were just typing in "TEST" in the TX6 box and moving on with normal digital mode responses, which won't work.  
3.  It appeared that many were NOT using the NA VHF contest mode, even though it sounds counter-productive.  It has the proper information exchange for this contest no matter the band according to Joe Taylor (WSJTx).  
4.  And of course, some were not even using the proper contest frequencies, instead they were on the main digital frequencies with a myriad of formats.  Throwing confusion to the wind must have been their motto.  
5.  And some folks were on the contest frequencies but using regular digital modes.  
 
All I can say is, you can lead a horse to water, but ......
 
A lot of the problems can be traced back to ARRL (sorry guys), but the naming of the contest is too similar to others, so a very unique name is probably needed.  Publicity was out there, but apparently not read by the masses.  It will take a couple of cycles for this to catch on, but maybe less than a year apart would help out.  Perhaps a 24 hour weekday version every few months to get the message out.  
 
BTW, I did get a few more 6m grids worked on Friday and 4 of them are confirmed already.  A few of the rare grid activators don't use LoTW, so I don't even mess with them unless they are so strong that it will be an easy contact.  I know, I'm a long way off, but I'm down to 91 left, not counting the outstanding ones, toward FFMA.  
 
Today 6m was a freeway from New England to the Pacific Northwest.  South of that line was very sparse.  Right now, 1630 CDT, it's the NE to SA.  Again the central USA is being somewhat left out.  Oh well, there's always tomorrow.  
 
73's
George - WB5JJJ
 
 
4

______________________________________________________________
ADXA mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/adxa
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:ADXA@mailman.qth.net

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html