[ILQSO] ILQP Modes...*was*: KJ9C a no-show this year

[James Funk]

Jared, I have a couple of observations.  The committee has discussed over the years that we do not want ILQP to be a "CW only activity".  

In 2009, there were 15800 CW and 11300 SSB QSOs reported.  I would suspect that there were quite a few more "casual, non-reported QSOs" on SSB than on CW, but I have no way of proving that.  I think the proportion of CW contacts may have increased slightly, but the NUMBER of contacts on both modes has increased.

In 2009, we instituted a special award based upon the number of SSB QSOs.

You are correct.  CW proficiency is a skill that takes practice and is often intimidating to those who are newcomers.  While "we can all talk", it took each of us years to get to the point where we are in communications skills using voice.

I am not a "great CW operator".  I am also not a "great phone operator", even though I do enjoy phone contesting when I am in the proper frame of mind.  Those who have mentored new operators in either mode (and we thank you!) know that coaching such a person through the first few QSOs can be painful to witness.  With either mode, accomplishing efficient communication does not come naturally.  Properly trained, a newbie can progress from stark terror to reasonable proficiency in a fairly short period of time.  This assumes, however, that the basic communication skills are in place.  I.e., you would have difficulty quickly teaching a person who spoke only French to handle a pileup in English, just as you would have difficulty teaching a person to run a pileup on CW if they did not know CW!

As for the reasons that more counties are not available on SSB, they have been enumerated, or at least allusions have been made to them.  Mobile SSB in a contest situation is difficult at best and fruitless at worst.  Take a crowded band and interject your mobile signal that is several dB down from even modest home stations with dipoles and verticals, and you are simply lost in the noise.  Several years ago, the last time I did a mobile ILQP operation from southern Illinois, we had sunspots.  We had short skip on 40 meters during the daylight hours.  Life was good.  I made many QSOs on 40 SSB during the daytime.  When five o'clock came, the band went long and it was impossible for me to work anyone else on SSB. No one responded to my CQs.  I could hear IL stations CQing, but they were coming back to stations in Colorado and New York.  I went to CW and ran stations at a hundred an hour on 40 and 80 CW.  Operating isn't much fun if you aren't working anyone.

NG9R and NA9Q can tell you how much "fun" it is to work phone only as mobiles in ILQP.

No amount of discussion is going to overcome physics, but we certainly DO need to stimulate phone activity in ILQP!  We need, in my opinion, to do this by getting more fixed and portable (i.e., with decent antennas) on the air for the event.  Jared, you guys put out a good signal with your portable setup and have done well.  In 2008, you made almost 800 SSB contacts, and most people who worked Logan, Mason and Tazewell counties got the contact from you.  We just need to figure you how to "clone you" so that similar operations cover not just three counties, but forty!!  :)

Any and all suggestions are welcomed as we gear up for ILQP 2010!

73, Jim N9JF

-----Original Message-----
From: ilqso-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:ilqso-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Jarrod Cook
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2010 5:15 PM
To: Illinois QSO Party
Subject: Re: [ILQSO] KJ9C a no-show this year

Thoughts from someone who does SSB only:

Maybe it's just me, but I see conflicting suggestions here.  On one had
we're trying to get newer hams/more hams to participate in the contest, but
at the same time claiming CW is the way to go.  The fact is many newer hams
(and some who have been around a while) are not proficient enough in CW to
use it for contesting.  This is the only negative to ILQP in my opinion.  I
love setting up portable operations and playing in the contest, but most of
the action and rare counties are only CW.  After the first few hours rates
slow down and new SSB counties are hard to find.  Every year there is more
CW and less SSB activity.

Maybe my/our situation is unique because we usually set up portable as sort
of an emergency communications drill with the goal of talking to as many IL
counties as we can.  It gets tiresome working the limited IL SSB stations
and then hearing out of state callers the rest of the contest (no offense to
you guys, though!).

If you want to hear a lot of new folks on the air (especially newer no-code
Generals), they need people to talk to! :-)

Not trying to turn this into a CW vs. SSB debate, just making an
observation.

73,
Jarrod
WX9JC