[NLRS] Digital and the January VHF Expanded Article

[Mary Brown]

Nice write up!

I do not care for FT8... removes the personal touch and mini rag chews that contests used to generate. Run up the band and let others know what you are hearing and where to help everyone increase scores.

Plus I see locals on FT8 only that I can easily work SSB at 100 to 150 miles out from my location. They park there and never leave or are on SSB so little it is hard to catch them. If there isa hint of good conditions on 2m I can work 100 watt stations with smaller yagis at 300+ miles!

I have been seeing people spreading out more again and that is a major plus! Those with smaller station are more likely to be heard of they get off the calling frequency and out of the clutter that is always there. 

And a reminder to go with my last point, just because you are not hearing DX on the calling frequency doesn't mean others aren't! If I am pointed south and guys in the metro point west and CQ I can hear them quite loud, and they bury the station I may be trying to work! Listen more, call a little less, June contest we spent a lot of time trading off who was calling CQ on .200. One station would call awhile then they would go hunt and pounce and someone else would call, or they would announce a move up or down the band. 

One thing we can really do to alert others is give the other guys call and grid so they know who we are taking to. Sure this is a contest but it is not going to hurt a big stations score to clue smaller stations in on the DX. We did this a LOT back in the early 90's and peoples scores jumped including the big guns scores because they were seen as a help rather than a hindrance.

LISTEN MORE, I am guilty of this too! If you hear even a faint whisper of voice on the calling frequency let that station finish up or move before CQing! And QSYing 2kc up is NOT leaving the calling frequency, your signal edges are still going to cover up a weak station. Make moves at least 5KC up! I remember stations spread from 30 kc down to 40kc above .200 during contests. If there is a lot of activity my preferred way to operate is hunt and pounce but I have very good receive making it easier. That does remove my 1,000 watt signal off of .200 or only there long enough to work a new one then I am back to hunting. I am trying to not be a pain in the butt to smaller stations! 

And if you are going to QSY to another band give others a chance to grab you on 2m before you go then take a group up the bands with you. So hard to pin a rover down who makes a Q and jumps up the band and is gone and then propagation changes and they are totally gone for who knows how long. 


Mary 
W0AAT
EN24ho

Work is progressing here to add a preamp on 432, adding 902 and 1296 with power on both bands. 902 I picked up a Motorola SGTD1045 450 watt cell amplifier. Conversion to 902 is VERY easy and I will spend more time doing metal work to rack mount it than electronic conversion! I have seen more of these listed for sale for under $100! Cheap power! 


-----Original Message-----
From: nlrs-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:nlrs-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Jon Platt via NLRS
Sent: Sunday, July 25, 2021 11:17 AM
To: nlrs at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [NLRS] Digital and the January VHF Expanded Article

Hello NLRS land
KK6MC, James Duffey, wrote an excellent January VHF expanded article that can be found on the Leagues website at <https://contests.arrl.org/ContestResults/2021/Jan-VHF-2021-FinalFullResults.pdf>.  The article itself is about 16 pages longs so make sure you have a cup of coffee or a beer in hand to read it.  I found two aspects of the article to be of interest.  First, because the January contest is not dominated by 6m Es like June is, the contest has a heavy regional character to it.  It is interesting to see how other VHFers are having fun in other areas of the county while we battle cold and snow.  We tend to get a bit myopic in our vision as to what a VHF contest is and reading Jim's article reminds me of the larger World we have in VHF.  Second, his article touches on the usage and impact of digital modes in an observational way along with some data looking at both the positives and negatives.  His "Things to do to counteract the potential negative aspects associated with the use of digital modes:" that starts on page 13 makes sense to me.   As your Dakota Div CAC representative, I do plan on being at Aurora'21 this coming Saturday if you want to discuss.  In the meantime, if you have not already, please take a look at Jim's excellent contest write up.
73, JonW0ZQ
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