[OhQP-mail] Adding 160 meters to OQP

[Steve Morton]

160 is a great band, but I see a couple of issues that could come into play...

1.  Many of the mobiles do not have 160 meter capability...  Most screwdriver antennas won't cover 160.  Most resonators won't play well on 160 CW and Phone without retuning.  A mobile antenna on 160 is such a serious compromise, it's a little like using a rubber duckie on 2 meters... it will work, but not all that well.  Yes, I know that lot's of folks run mobile on 160 and they will probably disagree.

2.  There are a lot of fixed station Ops who do not have the required real estate to put up a decent 160 meter antenna and may lose interest in the QSO party if they think that they will no longer be able to compete since they can't operate one of the bands effectively.

3.  This year, it was fairly easy to work even the close in counties on 80 meters... especially during the day... I think a lot of folks were surprised that 80 was actually fairly usable before dark... Quite honostly, I didn't hear all that much "bad mouthing" on 75 meter phone, but I'm sure it was there...

4.  Someone made the comment that folks will lose interest in the QSO party if the same callsigns win year after year...  Here's a surprise for you... It's good operators that win year after year... and if you give them another band, they will probably still win...  Personally, I find it a challenge to just improve my own score each year and maybe someday I'll be the guy that everyone else is trying to take down!!!

I read an article that Bob, N4CD wrote about the Ohio QSO Party in his County Hunter News letter today... his comment was "wow - another good one" (pages 21 - 25).  Several hundred county hunters read his newsletter by the way...  many of those county hunters have scores listed on the 3830 reflector...

Your can read what he wrote at: 
http://chnewsonline.com/CountyHunterNewsSept2009.pdf

It's a pretty darn good QSO Party as it is... so, my vote is don't fix it cause it ain't broke!

Steve - AA8HH
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