[NLRS] September VHF contest and an experiment

[Duane - N9DG]

Here's a non-metro area perspective. (This time to whole NLRS
list)...

I'm located about 200 Miles SE of the MSP metro area. And I'm
also about 140 miles NW from the Chicago metro area, and
about 90 miles W from the Milwaukee metro area. From this
vantage point I can get a pretty good perspective of peoples
operating behaviors from all of these various metro regions.
In a nutshell what I consistently see for all of them is the
tendency for everyone within 75 miles of the center of these
areas to mostly point towards the cores of these respective
population centers.

MSP area. A sizeable percentage of the time when I look that
way I'll either find, or get the attention of, someone from
the far side of the MSP metro area first. Grids like EN24,
25, or 36. Once the other folks who are actually closer to me
hear all the commotion, the antennas come around and I often
get a small run going.

Chicago area, you guessed it, almost the exact same thing,
though being 60 miles closer I do noticeably better at
getting their attention with my CQ's (I have better local
geography in that direction too). But none the less a similar
thing happens were I'll find and work folks in EN60, 70, 71,
and vicinity. Once again the closer EN51 and 52 antennas
swing around. Now what does happen is that many in the
Chicago area will hear me say "EN53" and then proceed to
point toward MKE, sometimes loosing them, many forget that
EN53 actually extends 100miles W of MKE. That brings me to
MKE:

MKE. Not as big as MSP or Chicago but a similar thing happens
with one variation. The MKE folks tend to concentrate looking
due S to Chicago. For only being 90 miles away getting the
attention of people in MKE is surprising difficult at times.
So once again I'll find someone out in the EN80, 81, 82, 91
region calling CQ. I often find them first. And again the MKE
(and Chicago) folks hear the commotion and then pounce on
those from the land of 8's. I see a similar thing with the
CVC area aka "EN44 gang" with respect to MSP. But I do also
notice that the EN44 gang are usually easier to get the
attention of than the MSP area. But then EN44 is about
comparable to MKE from here for raw distance.

What all these observations have made me conclude is that
there is what I call the "75 mile no matter what" rule. What
that rule basically says is that you can get the attention of
someone up to 75 miles away "no matter what" direction that
they may be pointing. Many others beyond 75 miles will need
to be specifically looking towards you if you are farther
away than 75 miles from them. And by extension if you don't
keep your antennas moving (and calling CQ) a majority of your
Q's will be from within 75-100 miles or so. So since I'm not
within 75 miles of any major population centers I have no
choice to keep the antennas swinging.

Now I also have a perspective of how the ops from southern
and IA and southern IL operate, both are mostly remote areas.
What is interesting here is that I'll get the attention of
the S IL ops (300-400 miles), this will in turn "create a
commotion" that gets noticed by the Chicago area. And then
the pileup ensues. Interestingly (and predictably) this
"piling on" does not happen very often when I root someone
out from S IA or N MO. But the geometry is such that the
folks from those areas are not spraying a large metro area
with RF when they are pointed at me. And the folks from these
same areas are too far outside the 75 mile "no matter what"
range of any metro area, so that they, like me, have no
choice but to keep the antennas moving. And that is the crux
of why they are often easier to find and work, even though
they are farther away. They simply keep their antennas moving
more thus increasing the odds that they will be pointed at me
(and me at them). I do get the sense that many in the metro
areas do miss these folks in the boonies simply because their
antennas aren't moving enough.

So that brings me to the topic of what this post is all about
that I'm responding to. The plan simply tries to codify a
practice that does indeed work. But, I'm not convinced that
"clock based" direction pointing is the best means to achieve
getting people to move antennas. One problem is that it
doesn't take short lived propagation events into
consideration. And what about people halfway between the two
areas? Which way do they point? It could also leave rovers
high and dry if they are in the "wrong direction" at the
wrong time.

In the end I think the best solution is to convince everyone
that it is really in their own best interest to keep the
antennas moving all the time regardless of the clock time.
And on top of that, be sure to do plenty of CQ's. All too
often everybody is listening and no one is transmitting.

This whole subject can easily lead into a discussion about
the merits of distance based scoring vs. the Q count
"emphasized" scoring that we now operate with. But that's a
too lengthy of a topic to get into here.

I'm taking the liberty of cross posting this to the Badger
list since much of this post includes them (us) as well.

73,
Duane
N9DG
EN53bj (yes that part on the far Western edge) ;)

--- w0zq at aol.com wrote:

> 
> 
> Hello NLRS land.
> 
> During each contest many of us who live in NLRS-land, on
> the edge of 
> the western frontier (yes, tongue in cheek), have had
> difficulties in 
> working eastward into the grid rich state of Wisconsin,
> northern IL, IN 
> and western MI. At the same time, those located in those
> eastern areas, 
> CVCC and Badger Contesters, have had a hard time working
> into the QSO 
> rich NLRS area. As an experiment, it has been suggest that
> we have a 
> east-west activity time where those of us who live in MN
> look east and 
> those who live in WI/MI look west. One suggestion is to
> have two such 
> activity times during the Sept contest, perhaps one hour on
> Sat., then 
> again another hour on Sunday with the idea that not
> everyone can make 
> both time slots, but they may be able to make one. For
> example 7 - 8 pm 
> Sat and 1 - 2 pm Sunday, etc, etc.
> 
> If this seems like a good experiment we can communicate
> this via the 
> NLRS, Badger Contester, and CVCC reflectors for the Sept
> contest.
> 
> Thoughts ?
> 
> 73, Jon
> W0ZQ



       
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