I don't park on the chats... I will check the APRS map for
openings then cq in directions that look promising... I check
beacons too, WD9BGA/b is my main indicator to the east, N0LL/b to
the SSW...
I listen more than CQ these days... between my allergies dumping down my throat and lack of sleep(pain from my destroyed spine...) my voice gives out to fast now...
Mary
W0AAT
1000x the bolded #3 below. And not only that, be looking around with the RX and keep the antennas moving.
But that is not what happens within or outside of contests, or even during good band openings, and has not for some time now - even before the digital modes growth in popularity. Instead what many analog only ops do is wait for the phone call / text, wait for the Internet propagation aid to show some activity, sit on ON4KST, or maybe some QSO Slack channel etc. Only then to try and make a QSO AFTER they had already scheduled it. To me that is as boring as it gets. What's the fun of making a contact with someone where you already know who they are, where they are, and when they are (on) before any RF goes anywhere? Once you know all those things, there IS NO CHALLENGE left.
Meanwhile on FT8 etc you play your hunches that the band might be open in a particular direction (just like in the good old days). Point antennas in that direction, and there's a good chance of finding some DX calling CQ, and they are doing so repeatedly. For perhaps 10's of minutes worth of 15 second sequences. And you too can do the same thing. And therefore be making QSO's. Meanwhile the analog calling frequencies - crickets. Even jumping over to the SSB calling frequency and making CQ's of your own, - still crickets.
So the decline of people just tuning and around and/or calling CQ on analog modes precedes the rise in digital mode use by years. It seems to have actually coincided with the availability of DC-daylight radios, the rise propagation loggers, and more recently QSO chat pages and the like. And then the allowance of self-spotting / real-time scheduling in contests has only worsened things.
It all becomes a vicious spiraling downward cycle, so fewer CQ's means fewer people tuning around looking for them, but with no with one listening or looking, then why bother calling CQ? As pointed out in #3 of Jim's post, modes like FT8 addresses that problem. And that is why in my estimation that those modes have become so popular. It has nothing to do with them being "easier", it is because that they are actually being used.
Here's a post contest write up that I did right here on this mailing list in 2014 attempting to show the importance of actually operating the radio (regardless of mode), pay extra attention my TX count tallies and my comments about them - again this was pre FT8.
Duane,N9DG
On Monday, July 15, 2024 at 11:50:17 AM CDT, Jim Spence via NLRS <[email protected]> wrote:
Comments & Suggestions from the peanut gallery:
1) 2023 results article is posted - scores last year were generally low - matched poor/flat conditions. In a flat condition scenario (likely for 2024), NLRS is located in one of the best areas of the country to be competitive nationally. Take advantage!
2) NLRS has a lot of members with 6m & 2m capability. Organize and agree on a time period ahead of time to get active on the analog modes. Perhaps the first 2 hours? Perhaps the last 2 hours Sunday afternoon? Perhaps both? Perhaps some other time with a bunch of folks available?
3) PLEASE CQ as much as possible. No one will know you are QRV if you don't transmit. The inherent digital mode advantage is that active stations are effectively 50% duty cycle and extremely easy to find & ID. Are you easy to find & ID on analog modes? CQ!
73
Jim KO9A (EN52xc)
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