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Radio activity around here was asymptotically approaching zero until this past weekend when I managed to put about two hours into the ARRL January VHF contest.  In brief, here’s what’s happening around K8GU:

• 47Q x 17G on 6 (8/2), 2 (29/11), and 432 (10/4) in ARRL January VHF.  The 6-meter QSOs were all made with an HF antenna.  I ran 100 watts on 432 so I’m ineligible for the 3-band category.  Heard, but didn’t work, N1GC (EM59), K1TEO (FN31, whom I almost always work), and VE3??? (FN03, I had the whole call at the time but forgot, working K1RZ).
• I did not work EP6T on any bands and really don’t care.  I didn’t hear much of the jamming when I did listen (on 40 and 80).  To paraphrase KE9V quoting JA1NUT, “I’m kind of over DXing.” Who has time for this, anyway?
• Speaking of the seedy underbelly of DXing…do you know what a “QSL grubber” is?  I’ve experienced a couple of different variations on this in the past year and it’s disturbing.  One guy was asking about specific QSOs and provided detailed description of (my) signal characteristics.  Nevermind the fact that I never operated on the band he mentioned during that operation.  He sent similar e-mail to several friends.  As if DX operators don’t talk to each other?  The DXCC desk has been notified.  I wonder if anybody actually falls for it or gives in, though?
• I made token efforts in NAQP CW and Phone to chalk up a participation multiplier for PVRC in the three-way PVRC-SMC-NCCC competition.
• No homebrewing or repair work has been undertaken since the summer.
• The baby can crawl and wants to walk so badly she can’t stand it.  The end is near.
• I took Evan to the Odenton Hamfest on Sunday morning.  The highlight for him was stopping for donuts…and stopping at a playground on the way home.  Bought some Snap-N-Seal F-type compression connectors for a work project, part of my quest to find the perfect F-connector for the perfect RG-6 type cable (quad-shielded, flooded).  More on this in a future post.
• It seems there are plenty of Elecraft K2’s on the market these days.  As the price slips below 1000 USD for a loaded K2/100, this radio is becoming a good buy.  As a secondary note, they all seem to be “professionally constructed by a well-known builder.”  This leads me to wonder what fraction of K2s were built by someone other than the owner (I estimated this fraction once to be about 1/3 of them).  I also wonder if people who built their own K2s hold onto them longer?

And so it goes, time to punch my card…

Yesterday, it was a cold but dry day and I thought it would be fun to go out in the garden and see what I could hear and work on SO-50. I quickly put a bit of charge into the UV-5R portable and assembled the Elk yagi.

The first pass I tried was off to the east and although I could hear plenty, I didn’t manage a QSO. The next pass after that was pretty much overhead and I was a lot more successful, working 2E1EBX also using handheld gear, over on the Norfolk coast and then Yuri, UT1FG/MM in IO90 on his way up to Hull.

Really enjoyable and not too cold.

Yesterday, it was a cold but dry day and I thought it would be fun to go out in the garden and see what I could hear and work on SO-50. I quickly put a bit of charge into the UV-5R portable and assembled the Elk yagi.

The first pass I tried was off to the east and although I could hear plenty, I didn’t manage a QSO. The next pass after that was pretty much overhead and I was a lot more successful, working 2E1EBX also using handheld gear, over on the Norfolk coast and then Yuri, UT1FG/MM in IO90 on his way up to Hull.

Really enjoyable and not too cold.

One continuing discussion in the VHF community is how to promote more activity, especially during the major VHF contests. One central theme that always emerges is how to modify the VHF contest rules to make them better, to make them fairer and to encourage new contesters. (Let me say up front that there is room for improvement in the contest rules but I don’t think rule changes alone will change contest participation significantly.)

In 2013, the ARRL contests added the Three-Band Single Operator and Single Operator FM Only entry categories. In January 2015, the ARRL added three more categories: Single Operator Unlimited High Power, Single Operator Unlimited Low Power, and Single Operator Unlimited Portable. These “unlimited” categories allow “passive use of spotting assistance” which roughly means these operators can monitor the various DX spotting networks but not spot themselves. The CQ Worldwide VHF Contest already allows passive assistance for all participants and self-spotting for digital EME and meteor scatter contacts. See the CQ WW VHF rules.

In January, the ARRL announced additional changes:

The Board … adopted amendments to the General Rules for ARRL Contests Above 50 MHz to encourage greater participation and band utilization. The changes become effective with the 2015 June ARRL VHF Contest. The revisions stemmed from recommendations offered by the Board’s Programs and Services Committee’s ad-hoc VHF and Above Revitalization subcommittee, composed of active VHF/UHF contesters, and they received strong support from the VHF/UHF community.

The subcommittee was charged with developing recommendations to increase the level and breadth of ARRL VHF and above contest participation and encourage operation on lesser-used bands. As a start to the process, the Board approved three changes that will permit assistance for all operator categories, with no effect on entry category; permit self-spotting for all operator categories, and allow single operators to transmit on more than one band at a time.

The changes will permit assistance in arranging contacts, but not in conducting contacts. They will, for example, allow a station to announce its location in a chat room, on a repeater, or even via e-mail.

The self-spotting/assistance issue is a hotly debated issue among VHFers, with two main schools of thought:

1) Contacts should be made completely independent of non-amateur assistance. Sometimes passive spotting assistance is allowed, but some folks want to eliminate that practice as well.

2) Contacts can be made with non-amateur assistance (spotting networks, chat rooms, etc.) as long as a complete radio contact occurs over the ham bands. This follows the common practice of internet spotting for EME and meteor scatter. Also, some rover stations have requested the ability to spot themselves when they enter a new grid.

There are a number of shades of gray positions between these two points of view (see the CQ WW VHF rules, for example), but I won’t try to explain them here. In general, I support the move to loosening up the restrictions on assistance (#2). Without good 6m propagation, VHF contests tend to be “QSO poor” and expanded use of spotting will allow for additional contacts. The potential risk is that we’ll get sloppy with what constitutes a legitimate contact. Once I know the exact frequency and call sign of the other station, it will be easier to “hear” the other station even when the path is not there. Of course, we already have this situation when we complete a QSO on one band and QSY to another band to work the same station. We know the frequency and call sign (and the grid)…did we really hear the other guy or just think we did? In the end, it all comes down to the integrity of the radio hams involved in the contact.

Those are my thoughts. What do you think?

73, Bob K0NR

The post Dorking With VHF Contest Rules appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Series Eight Episode Two of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. In this episode, Ed Durrant DD5LP, Martin Rothwell M0SGL and Matthew Nassau 2E0MTT to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin M6BOY rounds up the news in brief, and this episodes feature Amateur Radio Grid Locators.

• New Wireless Charging Organisation
• Ofcom Error on English Callsigns
• New D-STAR Support Section
• The ARRL Library goes live!
• More 5 MHz Channels for Czech amateurs
• FCC Enforcement Against Marriott International
• CQ DX Hall of Famer Bob Schenck, N2OO, named CQ DX Editor
• New World Record Claimed on 10 GHz
• Antarctic Activity Week
• Michigan Passes, Governor Signs Antenna Accommodation Legislation

Series Eight Episode Two of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. In this episode, Ed Durrant DD5LP, Martin Rothwell M0SGL and Matthew Nassau 2E0MTT to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin M6BOY rounds up the news in brief, and this episodes feature Amateur Radio Grid Locators.

• New Wireless Charging Organisation
• Ofcom Error on English Callsigns
• New D-STAR Support Section
• The ARRL Library goes live!
• More 5 MHz Channels for Czech amateurs
• FCC Enforcement Against Marriott International
• CQ DX Hall of Famer Bob Schenck, N2OO, named CQ DX Editor
• New World Record Claimed on 10 GHz
• Antarctic Activity Week
• Michigan Passes, Governor Signs Antenna Accommodation Legislation