VHF Contesting for New Stations, even FM only.
Odds are that almost every ham has the capability to try a VHF/UHF contest right now. (Well… OK, there has to be a contest in progrees — I’ll grant you that)
Despite the 100’s of thousands of hams in the USA, I doubt that more than 3 or 4% have ever contested.
Well… what if we could get that number to even 5 or 6%? That would nearly double the amount of activity. So it isn’t like we’re trying to change the world here. Think of your local and semi-local area — if you could motivate 5 or 10 new ones to try contesting, that would make a big difference. 5 or 10 here, 5 or 10 more there, and now you’re cooking.
So here’s how I encourage little-gun and FM stations to try contesting. Feel free to print this out and share.
OVERVIEW
While traditional VHF/UHF contesters use horizontally-polarized yagis and loops, and SSB mode, there’s far greater numbers of FM stations with vertical antennas. Many of the FM ops have also worked some DX on repeaters or on simplex. These stations are potential contesters who just need a little encouragement. We also hope that many of the FM contesters progress to SSB contesting, for its superior DX capability.
Here in SE WI, we’ve been actively encouraging more FM’ers to try a contest. If each and every one of you can find a few more hams who will try a contest with you, there will be dozens of new stations to liven things up. If anyone reading this thinks that their VHF/UHF bands are too crowded, you may as well stop reading now.
Otherwise, don’t hesitate to do a bit of promotion. Plenty of hams will try something new, when friends share their enthusiasm.
There are many reasons why FM contesting should be promoted:
1) Strength in numbers. Especially near larger metro areas (such as Milwaukee/Chicago), there are potentially hundreds of would-be contesters. Think of how many hams are within 10-50 miles of your location.
2) Your current FM station is capable of making dozens of QSO’s in contests. Improve antennas and feedline for more reach to other grids. Even a 10-15′ increase in antenna height helps greatly.
3) Those who are antenna-restricted can become great mobile or “rover” stations. I spoke about this at length in yesterday’s post. Rovers are very important in VHF/UHF contests. Spend an enjoyable summer afternoon or evening outdoors, handing out contacts from different grid squares to grateful contesters.
4) Active contest season is June thru September. Right now is the best time of the year to get ready for better band conditions and more activity on VHF. A full contest calendar is available at this link: http://kc9bqa.com/?p=158
5) In and around southern WI, a solid foundation for more activity is already in place. We’re fortunate to have the MRAC FM Simplex contest every February. http://www.w9rh.org/fm_simplex_contest.htm
6) Weekly nets on either SSB and/or FM will help a great deal. Promote them to the general ham population, and then make a commitment to be on the air. When you start getting new folks to show up weekly and hear something other than static on their rigs, it creates a connection.
Some sort of non-contest activity is key for getting others to move forward, come contest time. I used to try promoting contesting via email, without being on the air much and it flat-out did not work. The more you or your group of buddies can commit to at least some sort of regular on-air activity, the more hams will get involved with VHF/UHF.
Consider having a “practice contest” during a net. Just take a few minutes to do a practice contest exchange. Encourage a new person to give it a try. It’s sort of an on-air “show and tell”.
7) Many new contesters got on in the ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes in the Milwaukee and La Crosse areas. 146.55 and 146.58 simplex was crowded during a focused activity period we agreed upon (and promoted!) ahead of time. There were still newer folks calling CQ on day 2, as well. I expect we will continue to grow this summer. A good number of the new ones are adding bands, improving antennas and/or planning out their rover-mobiles.
8) Examine a grid square map http://gatorradio.org/Operating_Training_Aides/Ham_US_Grids%202005.pdf Notice what grid corners are in your area. Encourage rovers to go to that 4-grid intersection and take an hour or so to operate from each of the 4 grids. This multiplies the activity 4-fold, which will get new contesters interested.
Here in the Milwaukee area, we’re blessed to have the corner of EN63/53/52/62 right at 70th and Lincoln. A rover with very modest equipment and an afternoon should work many Q’s from each of those grids.
9) As you get close to a contest, talk things up. Use your nets, your email, your club meetings or newsletters, your swapfests, to share and re-broadcast information. Rovers — let other stations know you will be out roving. Give your best estimate of what grids you’ll be activating and when you think you will be there. Just get the word out, ahead of time.
Talking things up will get those in the background on board. Fence-sitters are everywhere. Give them a reason to get off the fence, and play along in the contest.
Don’t make the mistake of passively thinking everyone will be aware of the contest. Send out reminders, talk it up.
10) A contester can operate rover, and then go home and also operate from the base station. This would give you two entries in the contest, and further increase activity. Remember to always identify as “KC9BQA/R” when roving and as simply “KC9BQA” when at the home QTH.
11) Here’s the basic contest exchange: It’s simple, really, but I’ll spell it out in detail. First, you need to know which grid square you are in. To do this, go to www.qrz.com. In the upper left, type your callsign in and hit “search”. A short ways down, use “click for more detail”. A new page comes up and 10 lines down, it says your grid square. Mine reads “EN63ao”. For the contests you’ll be trying, all you need to know is the EN63 part. Don’t worry about the “ao”.
So now you know your grid square. You need to give that for every valid contest contact you make. Here’s a typical contest exchange:
Say I’m calling on 2 meters. I say, “CQ Contest, KC9BQA”. My friend W9GA answers.
I say, “W9GA, this is KC9BQA, in EN63. ” (Often times folks might say the EN part phonetically, such as “Echo November” or “Echo Nancy”, etc.)
W9GA responds, “KC9BQA I roger your EN63, my grid is EN53″.
I respond, “W9GA, roger your EN53.”
That’s it. Easy. We’ve just made a valid contest Q. We’ve exchanged callsigns, grid squares and rogers.
Now we would enter the time, band, callsign and grid in our log. (More about logging in a future post).
I’d also ask Ken if he has any other bands. You want to try and work every station on as many bands as you both share. Every new contact on a new band is another contest point. (More about “running the bands” below)
12) Here are the suggested frequencies for FM contesting. Know that 6 meters and 2 meters are your bread and butter bands. This is good, because almost everyone has at least one of those bands. Even with the stronger SSB stations, they also use 6 and 2 meters as their foundation. At least 60-70% of your overall VHF contesting is on 2 and 6 meters. Plenty of SSB ops have FM equipment and vertically-polarized antennas to work any FM activity they come across.
On 2 meters, FM contesting tends to concentrate around 146.550-146.580 simplex. There’s no contesting on repeaters. Also, ARRL rules prohibit the use of 146.52, as well as the guard freq’s of 146.505 and 146.535.
If it’s too crowded on 146.550-146.580, that’s great! It means it’s busy, and that’s a good thing. Then spread out between 146.400-146.495. If it’s super-busy, don’t forget the other simplex frequencies of 147.420-147.570.
If at all possible, you want to avoid being in a pile-up in VHF contesting. Use your VFO, and tune around. I’ll say that again: use your VFO and tune around. Far better to have 5 or 10 stations spread out, than all be clustered on one frequency. If you have found an empty frequency and after calling CQ for a minute or two, nobody answers, you can always use the VFO and go back to where the action is.
Call CQ often so others know you are there. Use headphones to dig out weaker stations you might not hear.
Those weak ones are often that grid square you haven’t worked yet. Learn to embrace weak signals, because there are plenty of them in VHF contests. Don’t hesitate to ask for repeats, and be patient. It may take a minute or two for the other guy to come up on a QSB peak. Especially on the SSB side, you will hear us saying “again, again?” to try and complete a Q with a weak station.
On 6 meter FM, the call freq. is 52.525. If it’s busy, spread out a little bit, and again, call CQ.
On 1.25 meters (220 Mhz band), you get a fair amount of FM contesting activity because commercially-available rigs for SSB on 222 are hard-to-find. So if you have a 220 rig, use it. You will find most of your 1.25m FM contesting taking place on 223.500.
If you have 70cm or the 440 band, you’ll want to use 446.000 FM. If it’s busy, considering going down to 445.975 or up to 446.025.
Here’s an important note for new VHF contesters. Nearly 100% of all initial contacts take place on either 2 or 6 meters. Then once you have made contact with someone, you ask them “do you have any other bands?” If they do, then you find a clear place on that other band, and QSY there to make your next contact. If they have more than 6 or 2 meters, you then find a clear place on 222 or 440, and QSY there for another contest point.
You can try calling CQ on 223.5 or 446.0 FM, but you’ll learn that most of your contacts are made by first working someone on 2 or 6 meters, and then “running the bands” with them.
I hope this information will help get some hams to try VHF/UHF Contesting “With Whatever They Have”. You are free to share it with anyone, anywhere.
73, Todd KC9BQA EN63 40 N of Milwaukee
50 thru 2304 (bands I have)
http://www.kc9bqa.com For Frequent VHF/UHF Updates