Good, I accomplished what I started out to do and that is to get people to
think about this subject (SO2R).
While I do not want to get embroiled in attacks and a lot of specifics I
will try to make a couple of points of clarification from my point of view.
First, let me again state this was not a statistical analysis. Anyone could
see that in the initial post I referenced my score and one other station in
my class for one contest. Hardly suggested that it was a "study" or an
"analysis". The information posted was the "data" at hand and it really was
not the sum total of the point of view. I believe several of the
suggestions made regarding a good future comparison of SO2R vs SO1R bear
review by the contest folks. What could be wrong with that?
While I have posted in the past on this subject and sometimes jokingly have
suggested many categories so "everyone" gets an award, that is not my goal.
I feel that SO2R vs SO1R is like having a race
between a Corvette and a Corvair. (Now please don't start a thread on car
comparisons). Those that think there is no advantage to running SO2R then
why do they do it? Most who do it are really first class contest operators
anyway. They do it to increase their score. They do it to advance
techniques. Then why was the technique of using packet radio swiftly put in
to a separate class? Someone suggested running packet spots takes no skill.
I beg to differ. To take full advantage of packet spotting in the assisted
category does require a bit of skill, coordination, timing and
understanding. Just about the same skills and equipment necessary for SO2R.
So why is one mode a category by itself and not the other?
Those who have said it is not a money issue. I can agree with that. There
are many ways to set up the station for SO2R without spending megabucks.
That is not my point. I could put $100K into my Corvair and it is still a
Corvair. I just feel in the spirit of competition, of trying to get more
operators
involved contesting, we need to have limited but fair classifications so
that
those who "need" to compete for the "prize" can do so on as level a playing
field as possible. For the rest of us, we can just have fun.
Oh yes, it was pointed out that there are so many other factors as to why I
was "womped". Very true. Some of the suggested differences were: It was
unfair to compare East Coast stations to West Coast stations (Whoa, I don't
think we want to get that one started); the operator for the station I
posted is "That Good" ( I stated in the original post that I take nothing
away from the other operator, a great contestor); that the soil conductivity
was different in Virginia than Arizona (Great idea, I think we should have
to submit the results of lab tests at each station and classify them by soil
conductivity). However, I was not just
writing about my station and my class but all others who are running SO1R in
an SO2R class. It still is amazing to me how many private emails I got in
support of the idea but how few were posted. Maybe some are intimidated but
still support the proposal.
Meanwhile I just will continue to try and stir
some thought on the subject.
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