[NLRS] Regional NLRS proposal for VHF contests

[Phil Lefever]

Jon,

Has the ARRL CAC ever talked about opening up the VHF contests to allow both digital and legacy mode Q's for credit? Such as how the 10m contest is. It is a bit more convoluted for the VHF contest of course since cross mode Q's are valid, so that would need addressing. There would also be the question of if there would then be a digital / phone / cw Q allowed with any given station akin to how Field Day is scored. 

Granted all the historical records would likely fall since there could be a bunch more Q points so it would be a significant change. 

As someone that is mainly a hold out for 'human modes' I find the lack of CW/SSB activity makes it much less likely that I'd even bother to turn on the radios for a contest. I'm very much less likely to consider roving again also. While adding an analog only class is nice as the legacy mode ops aren't directly competing with the digital entries, I'm not sure if it really drives any activity to the legacy modes. If mashing the SSB/CW button significantly added Q's and points perhaps more digital operators would try it?? 

Was this ever discussed?

Otherwise the idea of activity windows is a good thought, and of course something that we could to just choose to do ourselves.

73

Phil, KBØNES






On Tuesday, September 17, 2024 at 11:04:12 AM CDT, Jon Platt via NLRS <nlrs at mailman.qth.net> wrote: 





Hello NLRS land

As we all know FT8 has had a major impact on VHF contesting.  A large survey of VHF contesters conducted about two years ago showed that roughly 25% of VHF contesters use only digital modes, 25% use only analog modes and 50% use both.  I am speaking mostly about 6 and 2m where most of the contest contacts occur.  This led to a the recent ARRL contest rule change to add an Analog Only category where the goal was to generate increased activity on analog modes by moving some of those digital only guys to mixed mode as that is the only place your going to work the Analog Only guys.  Has it worked?  Maybe for June when there is Es, but to a lesser extent for September and January (my opinion, no flames please, YMMV).  

So in thinking about this some more, the positive impact of FT8 has been to increase the number of newcomers to the World Above 50 MHZ and to allow smaller stations to work farther distances, both a good thing.  On the downside, some are still sticking to digital modes only and are missing those who are on Analog Only, plus when sticking to digital only its harder to QSY to higher bands like 222 and up.  These are bad things.

With all this said, let me state that digital modes are not going away, so please no "lets ban digital modes from VHF contesting" because that is not going to happen.  What we need to do is to use our collective thoughts and experiences to make what we have work.

Towards that end, although NLRS doesn't write the contest rules, we can and do have an influence on our regional operating habits.  With that in mind, here is one thought/proposal that I have that I want to share with the club/region.  

How about for VHF contesting we focus on digital modes (for those who wish to) on the ODD contest hours, and then focus on analog modes on the EVEN hours.  Yes, you can only work a station once per band, but if you've been playing on say 6m digital and have worked W0ZQ, then come across me on 6m analog we can't count that duplicate Q but we can coordinate to move to higher bands such as 2m and up.  Such a proposal may generate more analog activity, more Qs, PLUS allow for improve QSO totals on 222 and up that have suffered due to the FT8 only focus.  

So the proposal is CQ on digital (for those who want to) on the ODD hours, CQ on analog on the EVEN hours.   

Of course when the bands are busy, like say a big E opening in June, you can throw this proposal out the door, but when time are quiet, no significant propagation going on, it may generate more Qs and more activity.

Wonder what club members think.  Is this something that we can try regionally, maybe come the January contest?   And again, no negative comments please on any mode (including FM only!).   Digital is here to stay so lets find a way to make this work towards the betterment of contesting.

73, Jon
W0ZQ

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