Another thing I’ve noticed is that U/VHF chasing brings in fewer completed contacts per time-unit spent chasing.
With HF it’s usually just a case of tune in, turn the beam, and either you can hear the activator or not. If not, well it’s on to the next one, and chances are there are plenty to choose from.
With U/VHF it can take rather longer to figure out whether the activator might be workable. If they’re using a directional antenna then it matters which way they have it pointed, and it also matters whether you can match their polarization. If you can just about hear them, is it worth waiting around for them to look your way, or is that “just about” the best you’ll get. It can be hard to tell…
The way I think about it is, if I can reasonably expect to copy the signal report I think of them as workable. With the advantage of sotawatch , I know what the rest of the information so my brain can work fill in any blanks, so its all about the signal report and there are ways of obtaining that without too many repeats (counting up to the number 1 2, 3, 4 by 1,2,3,4,5 would be 4 by 5)
Its also worth remembering that the chaser is probably capable of running more power so you are more likely to be heard. It also helps with the regular activators you get to know voices and can work out whats being said.
I would say, if you can hear them, go for it, they also may be able to home in on you too.
Its when you can’t hear the activator that the calculus sets in. Are they using a beam? OK, for SOTA the F/B ratio won’t be astronomical, but the F/S (front to side) can be in excess of 20dB or even 25 dB. Are they there and you are in a null, have they gone, are condx too poor today? How long do you listen to noise before going after a better prospect? A died in the wool V/UHF man will wait longer, hoping at least for a meteor burst or a fortuitious aircraft…
One thing I am sure of, the effect on the lower bands has been quite severe, very little on 80m and 60m, reduced opportunities on 40m. I hope things improve in January, even as I hope that the increased activity on 2m continues!
I chased MW9KRS on GW/SW-041 this morning. It’s a fairly close summit for me, but the wrong side of the local hill, so when he was mostly readable and figured I stood a chance I gave him a call. He could hear me better than I could hear him, and once I’d given him my locator he turned his antenna my way. That brought him up to a loud 59… There’ve been plenty of other activators I’ve been able to hear well enough to tell there’s somebody there, but not well enough to hear a callsign or otherwise cross that “in with a chance” line…
…and quite a few more where it’s anybody’s guess whether anyone’s there. Even now that I’ve got my polarisation changer working it can be difficult (unless the spot clearly states which) to figure out whether to use horizontal or vertical, so I spend time turning from one to the other to see whether there’s any big difference to be heard. Sometimes it works, but if not then I usually figure any remaining chance boils down to assuming they’re running horizontal and waiting for them to point it my way. At that point QRT spots come into their own.
