[Moon-net] ARRL Contest

[jimmyv@hol.gr]

Hello Joe

thank you for our FB cw random EME QSO on 2m. I am glad i copied u immediately
after u called me and you were a good 529, even with your 2*10el. and 1.2kw
You have very good cw operating skills, i am sure you could work even more
stations if you spent more time in cw at different time intervals.

But unfortunately the percentage of mixed ops doing some cw QSOs, as you did,
fell dramatically in ARRL 2006 EME Contest.

I wish there were more stations operating in wsjt by tuning the band, in search
and pound as you call it and did, also calling cq if they so wish, whatever
radio means one has available.

As a whole, it would be extremely interesting to see how the contest scores
would be if there were no internet, no loggers, no self spotting by those
non-participating, and of course no frequency and callsign announcement prior
to contest. Then, we could have a real Radio Contest, regardless of mode. It
would be real fun to see one changing frequencies also. For example, I changed
my tx frequency 8 times on 2m and even more on 70cm this year, in both contest
legs.

If all those hypothetical things happened, then we could tell the men from the
boys when it came to true EME Radio Contest scores in any mode. And regardless
of who is first or last, at least we would all feel good inside as we would all
know, we operated in the same manner. At least i am glad for the statistics you
give and clearly points out the good results you had by tuning the band and
proving it is possible.

What i can say for a fact is that mixed ops mostly preferred to work jt65 and
did not appear in cw. I have been running all EME Contests in cw for 12 yrs,
and i saw cw activity suffers greatly every year from the absence of more and
more mixed stations who choose a much easier way to get a higher score.
I am now convinced, beyond any doubt, that cw eme activity is killed big time in
a contest when it is mixed. I saw it happening 3rd year in a row, especially in
2006 that software has matured and logger passive or active use is a must for
the majority who do digital. Unfortunately.

Will send a mail with my results sometime later. Numbers tell the truth, and
every year i improve my skills and rx, but it is pretty evident that numbers
this year went down significantly, due to the contest being mixed.

Perhaps those of us, sole lovers of cw, should pull down the switch in the
future if Contest stays mixed. Because to stay awake night after night and
instead of 6-7 QSOs/hour to have one, or none for hours in a row, is a big
dissapointment for me and for many others (at least on 2m).
If we pull out, then, ARRL EME Competition 2007 can become digital only and the
users can set the rules as they see fit.

73 & Thanks again for our FB cw eme qso,
Jimmy SV1BTR


> Thanks to all for another highly enjoyable EME contest weekend!
> 
> I operated my small 2m EME station on both JT65B and CW.  No loggers, no 
> clusters, no internet, no telephone, no skeds.  I finished with 93 QSOs 
> (84 on JT65B, 9 on CW) and 47 multipliers.
> 
> If anyone tries to tell you a small station can't make EME QSOs without 
> assistance, don't believe them.  It's not only possible, it's a *lot* of 
> fun!
> 
> A comment on operating procedure: using a Linrad receiver for the first 
> time in a contest, I found that it is *much* more efficient for me to 
> work in Search and Pounce mode than to call CQ.  To put it simply, I can 
> find you more easily than you can find me.  \
> 
> As shown in the following table, nearly all of my QSOs were made in S+P 
> mode:
> 
> QSO initiated by           JT65   CW
> -------------------------------------
> S+P, I called someone:       71    9
> Someone answered my CQ:       4    0
> Someone tail-ended my QSO:    9    0
> 
> If those using the loggers to arrange QSOs -- presumably "just for fun," 
> rather than as contest entrants -- would develop the habit of staying on 
> frequency after a QSO, I estimate that I could have made another 10-20 QSOs.
> 
> I will look forward to working old and new EME friends alike -- in the 
> next contest, or any time!
> 
> 	-- 73, Joe, K1JT
> 
> 144 MHz: 2x10 xpol, 1.2 kW
> 
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