Thank you George. You absolutely NAILED it.
73, de Hans, K0HB
---
Operating SO1.5R (A 10 year-old 775 and a 40 year old R4C)
>
> Where to draw the line? And is it tower height? Number of elements?
> What about the folks that live on hills with really nice
> sloping foreground? Are their towers equal to the towers
> of the guys that live on flat ground or at the bottom of the hill?
>
> There are many reasons why folks get on in radio contests. I would
> hope the overriding reason is because it is fun.
>
> I have been doing radio contests for more than 25 years now - I never
> would have dreamed that I would write a sentence like that when I was
> doing the first contest I ever entered back in 1977. It was the ARRL
> 10 meter contest and I was a novice at the time. We lived in a three
> bedroom ground floor apartment and I had a Kenwood TS-520 and a
> 1/2 wave dipole strung down the hall. I was planning for this contest
> for weeks, maybe months and I made 21 contacts and a whole 702 points.
>
> I keep coming back for more because I enjoy operating the contest, I enjoy
> the thrill of the hunt, the thrill of not knowing what will happen at
> the next CQ or the next change in band conditions.
>
> I do like the competition but that is secondary in many ways to just
> getting on the radio and checking in with friends all over the world
> and experiencing the event. Or as N0AX said, "listening to the planet
> turn." N6AA and N6ZZ didn't go around the planet operating
> from each of the 40 zones in the CQ WW contests for the past 20 years
> because they wanted to be at the top of the top ten - they did it because
> they love contesting.
>
> It is also fun for me to work in improving my skill set and pushing myself
> to stay focused and flogging the radios even when I am tired or the bands
> are bad - I find it gives me a great sense of accomplishment to do my
> best against whatever is thrown my way during the event.
>
> I have not always had huge hardware to play with but I love this
> game and I have worked things out in my life (I am not rich) so that
> I can have a decent station. I have done this so I can have fun
> playing on the radio.
>
> If all I had was a G5RV in the tree I am pretty sure I would still be
> on the bands pushing myself and my station. But it is this same drive
> that has led me to improve my station.
>
> Back when I was starting out at this contest stuff I did not have much
> but I still got on - there were far fewer categories back then and you
know
> it never much crossed my mind that I would want a category because I was
running
> a tri-bander at 40' and some wires or that I only had an amp that would
put out
> 400 watts if the line voltage was really good. I still did full efforts.
>
> There have been several comments made during this discussion about SO2R
categories.
>
> - "I don't send in my logs anymore because of lack of a SO1R category."
> - "SO2R is going to kill contesting."
> - "Having a separate category will save contesting."
>
> These are all missing the point - contesting is fun - the lack of
categories
> is not what is getting newbies into contesting. They are getting on in
> contests because they find them to be fun and maybe challenging.
>
> The thing that got me all fired up about that ARRL 10 meter contest back
> in 1977, that had be dreaming and planning what I would do and even
> dreaming up ways to put up an outdoor antenna for the weekend was not
> a category or a hope of winning a certificate or anything like that - it
> was the writeup in QST.
> I was not an ARRL member yet and I only had been given a few issues of
QST
> but I sure did read them often and it was the report of some previous 10
meter
> contest that got me fired up about the contest. I must have read that
article
> about a million times.
>
> You want to get more folks on in contests?
>
> Promote them.
> (There is a reason the CQP is the biggest state QSO party.)
>
> Talk them up.
>
> Get your friends on the radio.
>
>
> Write an article for QST or CQ or volunteer to do the
> write up for one of the contests. Writing the results up
> is hard and fresh ideas would be most welcome I bet. You want
> to see some cool side-bar or more in-depth contest coverage
> then maybe you can step up to the plate and create it. Doing so
> will only help the sport of contesting.
>
> I am looking forward to seeing you in the next contest.
>
> --
> George Fremin III - K5TR
> geoiii@kkn.net
> http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr
>
>
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