[Moon-net] An important step forward!

[peter blair]

 Ed says   "Joe K1JT has given us a program that has increased the amount of people on the bands above 50 MHz.This has been a BIG step forward for all the contest Above 50 MHZ."
 With respect,  this statement is not supported by the evidence. 
On 432 MHz the number of entrants and number of QSOs by the top station in the ARRL eme contest has been decreasing steadily since 1993.( well before the advent of JTxx) The QSO number then was 180 , it's now about 80-90.  ( this data comes from an authoratitive but  unpublished paper, but can anyway be derived from the contest results.) 
On 1296 there has been a steady  increase in contest activity since 1989 but this has not been due to JTxx but to the now well proven route of 2.5-3m dish and 200W PAs and easy to make preamps. There are also an increasing number of well equipped 5-8m dish stations who can work small stations. JT65 is certainly  having an addional effect on 1296 activity, and that will increase but its not been the principal driver.
2304 MHz....well,  the first JT65 QSO took place this month. Activity there has been increasing steadily due to SSPAs from the cellular phone fallout.
Of course on 50 and 144MHz the increase from the advent of JTxx has been dramatic.
73 Peter G3LTF