Hello Doug and other readers.
Thanks for publicising the event coming up this coming week-end.
I will only be operating on the Sunday morning for several hours. Weather permitting, I propose to be operating from Kamarun Lookout near the Lamington National Park (QG61NU) using all bands from 50 MHz to 76 GHz inclusive.
I am planning to commence operating from there around 6:00 a.m., through until the end of the contest period. That means quite an early start from home that morning!
I try as much as possible to keep 146.500 MHz and 439.000 MHz FM simplex open for getting in touch and for liaison for the higher bands. Of course, from time to time I will be operating on the usual SSB calling frequencies - .150 in the 'busy bands'.
Here's hoping that the weather for going portable is looking good, and that many of us have many contacts over the week-end!
Cheers and 73,
--Doug Friend, VK4OE.
Doug et al
It looks like I will miss you this time around, times not co-incident..
My plan is to operate Saturday afternoon on 6m, 2m and 70cm coupled with a 'maybe' for the higher bands. I am trying to sort out an alternative microwave-IF radio but not sure if it will be resolved by the time Saturday rolls around. The original one used as an IF has its legs turned upwards and at this point in time is likely to be irretrievable - too old to get correct parts to solve the issues. (Not a very high priority job but I will spend some more time on it eventually as it would be more convenient to use).
There has been some good propagation on 6M around VK and to ZL this last week or so, plus a few bits on 2M too, so could be an interesting event. It will be interesting to see which callsigns end up operating in this FD !
Contacts in this FD also count to the Ross Hull Contest, 1st Jan to 31st Jan, rules on the WIA web site under Contests.
Doug
I worked quite a few DX stations on 6M during my afternoon's effort but came upon an anomoly in the scoring when I reviewed my 6-hour log.
It has to do with this section in the rules : "About Contest Exchanges RS or RST reports, a serial number, and your 6-character Maidenhead locator (the Sub-Square). The Maidenhead locator is optional if it has already been exchanged in a previous contact during the Field Day and neither station has moved since then. " and "There are two Divisions: Division 1 scores contacts on the basis of Squares (4-character locator) worked. Division 2 employs distance-based scoring. Operators may enter either Division 1 or Division 2, or both. See the scoring rules below. A Square refers to the Maidenhead Locator system definition, as denoted by the 4- character locator. To facilitate scoring for Division 2, all stations are required to exchange Sub-Square locations (i.e. the 6-character locator). "
Problem was that some of the stations did give out their 6-char locator, some didn't know their locator at all, and the likes of VK3KQ/P who only gave out 4-char grids, those contacts are only worth 9 points instead of about 1200 (Div 2) !
Maybe they don't care what Division that YOU are operating in (despite the contest organisers wanting to implement just a distance-based scoring operation) !!
This points discrepancy is just too big to accept. Half points - maybe ???
We don't have any control of those who are not prepared enough with their full grid detail but we get penalised.... (It would be interesting to be a fly-on-the-wall when the VK3KQ guys review their points log..)
I tried to give out my 8-character grid early in the event and was told they didn't want the extra two chars. After that, I just gave out the 6-char grid.
The good news was that I did make some contacts on 1296 and 3398 MHz - but none on 2403 - despite getting the gear going enough to be active on those microwave bands. That was on top of those on 50, 144 and 432. Good outcome.
(12-01-2019, 05:55 PM)VK4ADC Wrote: [ -> ]...and the likes of VK3KQ/P who only gave out 4-char grids
No Doug - you are wrong. Very wrong.
Perhaps you only heard a 4-char maidenhead, but VK3KQ/p always gives out 6-char maidenheads "QF12VG" which are clearly announced as "QF12 Very Good". A check with Peter - the dedicated VK3KQ 6-metre band operator - has confirmed that he was indeed following this procedure (as he always does, and just as the KQ/p team have always done for the last 10 years).
I also checked with a couple of other local stations - and not once during the 24 hour field day did they hear us issue 4-char grid squares. Not once. And the VK3KQ/p is also identified on Contest Radar at QF12VG - you should give that a try.
To suggest that VK3KQ/p was doing this deliberately in order to penalize other operators I find to be abhorrent and an enormous insult to the work of the VK3KQ team who pride themselves as being a shining example of a top-quality high-performance field-day station.
Your self-confessed lack of knowledge regarding the VHF-UHF Field Day scoring system suggests that you are new to the VHF/UHF field day scene. If you can invest some time to properly understand and embrace the rules you'll also discover that you can indeed edit your log after the event to include the correct grid square for any that you missed.
So give it a shot. QF12VG. Make the change to your log. It's much easier to find a solution than shooting down other operators through disgraceful insults.
Ralph VK3LL
"Perhaps you only heard a 4-char maidenhead, but VK3KQ/p always gives out 6-char maidenheads "QF12VG" which are clearly announced as "QF12 Very Good". A check with Peter - the dedicated VK3KQ 6-metre band operator - has confirmed that he was indeed following this procedure (as he always does, and just as the KQ/p team have always done for the last 10 years). "
Ok, now I understand. I copied the QF12 only because of completely non-standard phonetics - ones that can take place in any phrase that may be uttered in any conversation. That is one of the reasons that there is a standard phonetic alphabet and why it should be used all of the time. Given that the subsequent QSOs did not require a grid re-entry courtesy of the logging software, the 4 character grid remains in my log.
"So give it a shot. QF12VG. Make the change to your log. It's much easier to find a solution than shooting down other operators through disgraceful insults."
My log can't be edited because I didn't copy other than a 4 character grid, even if you are now advising it is QF12VG. Changing it is against the morality of the Rules.
Apart from that, my log was uploaded on Saturday evening at the end of my 6-hour operating window and I don't change my log once submitted - even though in practice I could re-submit it.
The valid on-air exchange is what goes in the log - not what may (or may not) be visible on Contest Radar !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That grid information is to help you figure out where to point your antennas & not to access grid detail not copied on-air to put in your log.
"Your self-confessed lack of knowledge regarding the VHF-UHF Field Day scoring system suggests that you are new to the VHF/UHF field day scene. If you can invest some time to properly understand and embrace the rules you'll also discover that you can indeed edit your log after the event to include the correct grid square for any that you missed."
My recent FD history is only back to 2009 while my first FD event was in about 1969 or 1970. So very much a newbie.
https://www.vk4adc.com/web/field-day-act...-field-day is the first one I wrote up on my web site so at least I can confirm my recent history - plus a quick check of the VHF/UHF event results on the WIA site could be confirmation too.
The rules only changed radically when the Div 1/ Div2 system was created. The rules haven't changed a lot since then.
"To suggest that VK3KQ/p was doing this deliberately in order to penalize other operators I find to be abhorrent and an enormous insult to the work of the VK3KQ team who pride themselves as being a shining example of a top-quality high-performance field-day station."
I did not mean to suggest that 'this team' deliberately penalised other operators but by handing out (apparent) 4 character grids, that might be taken as the outcome while collecting the full points from stations providing the 6-char grids to them. Your taking it as an enormous insult is purely your interpretation of what I wrote.
An individual check log and a provisional results PDF have been emailed out to participants (received here today).
While I am tempted to add the PDF to this post, I had better wait until they are no longer provisional.
The good 50MHz propagation on the Saturday certainly bumped up scores !
PS The Ross Hull Contest finished at midnight last night so don't forget to get your logs in for that too - even if it is only for contacts made during the Summer Field Day.