[Elecraft] Numbers and a plug for VHF+

[Jessie Oberreuter]

On Wed, 14 Oct 2015, Jim Lowman wrote:

> At the Elecraft presentation that Eric did at Pacificon last year, I threw 
> out this exact idea for his consideration.
>
> Eric was receptive to the concept, but said he didn't think that there would 
> be a large enough market for such a transceiver.  He's also the business guy 
> with Elecraft, so I have to believe what he said.


      The data supports this conclusion.  At our annual Pacific Northwest 
VHF Society meeting this past weekend, I was surprised to learn just how 
small the population of VHF+ weak-signal operators is.  One ARRL rep noted 
that, from the logs, the 60 or so people in the room represented 15% of 
the national VHF+ weak-signal community.  There are 1042 logs in last 
year's June VHF contest (the most popular of the three); the August UHF 
Contest submitted log count, meanwhile, has been hovering around 160 logs 
for the past several years, and anyone with 2m/70cm HT has enough 
equipment to participate.

      Shortly after getting my license, I moved to Seattle and lived in a 
series of single-room apartments.  I didn't think I could really do radio 
from such places until I discovered both HF QRP and the local weak signal 
VHF community. There is a lot of operating fun to be had on the VHF bands, 
but it generally takes a local community to make it work.  All I ever 
heard was dead air until I stumbled one night into a casual round table on 
144.220, and the rest was history.

      Here in the PNW, we have several weekly nets 
(http://pnwvhfs.org/nets.html) and a community of operators who are 
regularly on for the various sprints and contests.  We also have an active 
email reflector with sprint, contest, and SOTA announcements.  This is a 
vital part of what makes VHF+ work in the PNW.  Yes, the gear is 
important, but a certain amount of human infrastructure and activity is 
also needed.

      If any of you have regular local rag chews on repeaters or even on 
HF, you might want to consider migrating to 2m SSB.  Similarly, 6m makes a 
nice place for local cw practice nets -- it's a great way to get the 
experience of HF operating without the need for large antennas, and when 
the band opens up, your members will be in for a thrill!

-kb7psg