#47 How to get started in Ham Radio Contesting with the Youtuber's Bunch

But it uses only a small fraction of each HF band. That’s doesn’t help justify our allocation of 100’s of kHz of HF spectrum that’s sitting idle. If it is the only thing that keeps the bands alive then we jeopardize losing our HF allocations.

 

It sounds like you are concerned that FT8 is pulling people from other parts of the band. Phone portions sit idle when they are uselessly closed but FT8 is still busy. Whenever there is a phone opening on 10m there are always people calling CQ, so I'm not concerned about FT8 siphoning folks off of phone. I believe in fact that there are actually MORE people using the bands because of FT8. There are lots of folks that just aren't interested in making small talk in front of a world-wide audience. Along with contesting, FT8 opens up radio and all of its learning potential to those that would otherwise choose not to. I wasn't a ham during the last solar cycle peak but it is well known that 10 meters was open to Europe almost 24 hours a day. I'm looking forward to the next cycle.

 

I'm not talking about marginal propagation conditions. I'm talking about when there are S9 plus FT8 signals on 17m or on any HF band and not one CW or SSB signal. There might be more people using the band as you claim but they're all dumped onto a single frequency which does not bode well for us when the powers that be are watching. Being licensed for 41 years I've never heard anyone refer to HF communications as "making small talk in front of a world-wide audience." If that's the case then the licensee would choose to operate on their local repeater or their favorite VOIP talk group. FT8 can exploit propagation conditions the human ear can't detect but it's no panacea for the Amateur Radio. I'm not the only one talking about FT8 "siphoning folks off of phone." Ask the seasoned Six Meter operator what he thinks the impact of FT8 has been. The ON4KST six meter page has taken a 180 turn and it's now almost exclusively FT8 oriented. I'm hearing the same complaints regarding VHF contests. Many have seen the change and are concerned about FT8's impact. There's no need to wait for the next cycle. The propagation is there and has improved with more daylight. 17 meters is staying open into the night as cycle 24 wanes and coronal holes disappears allowing for a quieter geomagnetic field. 8pm local and EU is still coming in on 17. As W6LG would say "we're communicators."

 

It's the solar minimum. Yes there are openings but we are still in a period of "marginal prorogation conditions". HF communications offers a plethora of different flavors. The same people fretting over FT8 said the same thing about psk31. SSB was going to be the undoing of ham radio several decades ago, maybe you remember that. I think HF's best days lie ahead. Anyway, the original post concerned contesting, which i am in favor of. It's the glue that holds amateur radio together like it or not. Did "making small talk in front of a worldwide audience" bother you? Not everyone has the confidence and the gift of gab to master the mic. FT8 fits the bill.

 

to screw up everyone else's weekend radio enjoyment!

 

What happened to your email address?

 

I respectfully disagree. CW and SSB continue to thrive as evidenced by both contest and non-contest bandmaps. Actual human interaction is not (yet) dead...

 

wow sterling, not gonna consult the king of contesting? shame