New Contest for DXers and Portable Operators

ini ide yang bagus! Kami setuju

 

The little pistols usually have no idea how much effort the big gun stations have to invest to be on air. Do you think all the towers and antenna's will erect and maintain themselves? Running a high power station means you are no longer tinkering with RG58 and wires but with Heliax, big towers and lots of aluminum. Rain, wind and sun means you need to constantly maintain your station.

I have operated and helped maintain two stations (PI4COM and PI4DX) which can be considered big gun stations by Dutch standards. I have also operated low power portable stations during the IOTA contest and field day. I can tell you one thing, sometimes we choose to operate low power because it's just much easier to set up. No need for big power generators and power and coax cables that can handle high power. No need for filters (less RFI problems) and heavy-duty switching gear. Even the tables/desks we use can be less heavy duty because they don't have to hold heavy amplifiers.

My point is that whether you operate as a little pistol or as a big gun, it both takes a lot of effort to get and stay on air.


The POC seems like an interesting contest. This year I will probably have to pass because in that weekend we will be traveling back from OZ to PA. Nevertheless, me and a couple of my ham radio friends like operating portable, so we will definitely keep an eye on this one ;-)

 

Rob,

Thanks to your Q and numerous others via email, the SC has decided to establish that portable station setup must be within the 48-hour period of the contest but prior to the continuous 8-hour block of operation. It’s now in the official Rules Doc on the foxmikehotel.com website.

 

Thank you! I'm looking forward to participating.

 

misunderstanding - sorry- I wanted to compare portable stations to fixed big home-stations, portable to non-portable.

Just today , there was a Europe-contest. I didnt know that, when I tried to be portable today. I built up my station (mostly the antenna, dispite windy conditions). But when I started my receiver, it was clear- no chance. HF was totally clogged with stations, mostly high powered stations. Under such conditions you can forget portable (low power). All over the band I could hear at least 2 stations simultanly. This was no exception but more like the norm. And its hard to believe, that all these stations did not notice what I noticed. Even if they use high power, they should be able receive the other stations. but ofcourse, the higher their output, the bigger the probability that other stations receive their signal, but they do not recognise the simultanly transmitting stations.
Sorry, but I do not like these kind of contests. It mostly means, the bands are totally clogged. There is little chance to receive weaker signals . And these for a big part would mean dx -stations. Europe contest - to get as much stations from Europe in a short time? for What? This is not quality but just quantity and means clogging the bands.To operate as quick as possible. For what?

 

20m this afternoon was a mess with the WAE contest, true. I managed to work some DX this weekend with 10W portable, and we had fantastic weather for being out in the field in England. I doubt it will be this good in three weeks. But I think the 8-hour window for POC will produce very different strategies from different contestants, and it will thin out the bands a bit. The obvious extremes are trying to pile up short-range contacts versus seeking out fewer but longer-distance ones. Optimum times and bands for those two strategies are likely to be different.

 

Please bear in mind: this is NOT a Portable Ops only contest! The Challenge part of the name is intentional...can the fixed (QTH in our nomenclature) station beat the portable operator on a more level playing field?

73,

Frank
K4FMH

 

[QUOTE =“ DK7RE，post：5586888，member：986359”]针对那些不熟悉这种语言的人：
这是一个好主意！我们赞成
转换：这是个好主意。我们同意
：D
欢迎中国人[/ QUOTE]
ŤNX !GL AND DX.

 

Happening this weekend!

 

Press release:
https://foxmikehotel.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/POC-Press-Release-FINAL.pdf

Final updated rules:
https://foxmikehotel.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/POC-rules-v1.14_FINAL.pdf

 

Note that if you use N1MM+, it's called the FMHPOC...they couldn't use POC for some reason but it's supported with the latest updates to N1MM+. VKCL is a lighter weight logger that directly supports the POC.

 

Frank,
Nice idea for a contest with a meaningful exchange, thanks. I will be formulating my strategy till then.

Oh boy, an eight hour ops window?? Yikes

 

I'm going to say it was a very bad call having this contest the same weekend as the CA QSO party. The band is loaded with the other contest and no one wants to give the exchange for this contest.

 

I agree with KB1Rs, here in Ireland the bands were full of DX stations taking part in a contest who got all excited when they heard that I was a portable station, with comments like ".. portable station only please" .. I would repeat the callsign /p after which one of two things happened, the station would ignore me and proceed to put out a CQ call or come back with with "Oceania only! Oceania only!" then proceed to put out further CQ calls. I found this to be extremely rube and not in keeping with the amateur radio ethos. Listening on the frequency for a few minutes afterwards it was very apparent that the station was getting no replies. It only takes less than a minutes for a basic QSO to exchange details such as portable/QTH, GridSquare, serial. Well done to those rude stations for making a newly licensed ham fell welcome in the hobby.

 

Hi Frank,
I would encourage a positive feedback exercise at some time in the next week or two. This is the first time for this contest and hopefully it will get bigger and better next year.
I'd like to make a couple of comments. I'm in the same club as Tom, EI5IEB and would concur with his comments.

1. The OceaniaDX Contest was a big negative for us, the big guns in Europe were pointing to the east, and weren't interested in even exchanging a signal report, not very nice.
2. Someone previously has mentioned operating in a small section of the bands to facilitate contacting other portable or Q stations who want to take part in the contest.
3. Another observation, while we operated on Saturday 3rd, from about 13:00 to 21:00 UTC on 80m, 40m and 20m, we heard just one other station taking part in the POC contest. I'm not sure if that was just bad luck, bad technique or there was no-one there. I can't answer that, but would be interested in seeing the number of contest entries in Europe.
4. Really hope that we get good positive feedback from this years contest and hope it's bigger and better next year.

Many thanks to Frank and the members of the steering committee for the gem of an idea, and the hard work in putting it all together.
Here's to next year.
Frank, EI8HIB/P