And we wonder why some people have a bad opinion of contesters.
Fortunately, there are some at the elite level who combine skill,
tremendous competitive spirit, and, dare I say it, humility. I could
name some names, but I won't here.
Just a couple of comments. "Friend" Jim and I have never met, but my
computer log shows 49 QSOs with ZD8Z, going back to 1990. I'm sure
there are more in earlier years. I've been "getting out" in contests
since 1954 and I stand by my belief that the people who get on for a few
hours, or use contests to bolster their WAS and DXCC totals, are even
more important to the health of our sport than the top few. Bob Cox
told me a few years ago that there were over 30,000 call-signs in the
CQWW database from one year's contest - how many of those even sent in
their entries?
Finally, and I think most important, I have never criticized those who
choose **not** to use assistance such as the Reverse Beacon Network, and
have consistently argued for maintaining the distinction between
assisted and unassisted operation. Those who wish to take either path
should be free to do so, as long as they are honest about which they
have chosen. The technology is out there, the genie cannot be put back
in the bottle, but it can be properly managed. Learning how *not* to
generate Skimmer spots, when you don't want to, is just another technique.
73, Pete N4ZR
The World Contest Station Database, at www.conteststations.com
The Reverse Beacon Network at http://reversebeacon.net, blog at
reversebeacon.blogspot.com,
spots at telnet.reversebeacon.net, port 7000 and
arcluster.reversebeacon.net, port 7000
On 8/31/2012 3:38 PM, Jim Neiger wrote:
I sincerely appreciate my friend Pete N4ZR's advice on how to
attract the casual Skimmer ops come Sundays. Recently Pete called me
"arrogant", which, by any reasonable standards, I probably am. But
still it was probably the nicest name anyone called me that day.
A couple of quick comments, if I may:
(1) As I sometimes say, "you need to get out more". I do NOT always
end each QSO with my callsign. I have three F-keys programmed:
CALL TU dit-dit, and I use them all. By the way, I don't use the
last nearly enough, but when I do, it's really effective and amazing
how the sharp ops in the pile-up pick it up. Expect to hear more of
it from 9Y4W this November. As to my sometimes rolling with just the
CALL, I learned that from my idol KH6IJ, and I can probably come-up
with a few worst standards to emulate. It does three things: (1)
acknowledge the QSO, (2) identification, and (3) QRZ? And in these
days of too many going too long without ID, I'd much rather have the
reputation of being "pile-up friendly". Another thing I've learned,
the more frequent I ID, the bigger the pile-up. It's an amazing dynamic.
(2) At this stage of my contesting career, spanning I guess 57 years
now, I am definitely realizing my best years are in my rear-view
mirror. But hey, at the (trust me, advanced) age of 73, I was still
able to break the world record in last February's ARRL DX CW, but
regrettably came in No. 2 to my good friend at FY5KE. The arrogant
side of me says: "if you can do that, then please go out on the
DX-end and show us what you got". And send me a post-card. I've won
more than my share, and lost even many more than my share. At this
age, I seriously couldn't care less if I ever win again, but thanks
for thinking of me, Pete.
(3) I don't know, in this world of instant gratification, everyone's
got an opinion. It needs to be polite. It needs to be politically
correct. It needs to be tightly controlled. If we're not employing
the latest technology, we're dinosaurs. People do little to promote
what made DXing and contesting great in the first place: OPERATOR
SKILLS. Remember them? How to find DX. How to copy SSB and CW in the
most rigorous of communication environments. How to to know where to
find whom and when. How to know who you can move to another band, and
when to ask. How to beat the other guy out in a pile-up. How to
listen, listen, listen. What set us to be the Best in the World
communicators.
Did you watch the 1500M races in the Olympics? You think these
(real-world) athletes are worrying about playing nice as they're
elbowed and jostled going around the track? Uh, keep your elbows in?
Give me room. Don't go "split"?? NOPE. And these are real athletes,
we're just amateurs.
In my opinion, if you want to play patty-cake, get your wife to take
you to her Saturday afternoon tea party. If you want to contest:
man-up. This is serious stuff. Dog eat dog. Go split. Be arrogant.
Vy 73,
Jim Neiger N6TJ
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Pete Smith N4ZR" <n4zr@contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2012 2:11 PM
To: "Ward Silver" <hwardsil@gmail.com>; "CQ Contest"
<cq-contest@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Split operation in CQ WW CW
Hey Doc, that's fine if you take other measures to avoid being spotted
by a Skimmer, but if you're in fact being spotted on the RBN, doing that
will simply cause you to be re-spotted much more often than Skimmer's
normal 10-minute limit. Talk about unintended consequences!
N6TJ needn't worry - all he has to do is do what he's always done, end
each QSO just with his callsign. Of course, he may miss a lot of casual
ops that way, but nothing's free in the Magic Kingdom. Perhaps, dare I
suggest, he will want to start sending Skimmer's key words on Sunday,
when things slow down.
73, Pete N4ZR
The World Contest Station Database, at www.conteststations.com
The Reverse Beacon Network at http://reversebeacon.net, blog at
reversebeacon.blogspot.com,
spots at telnet.reversebeacon.net, port 7000 and
arcluster.reversebeacon.net, port 7000
On 8/28/2012 4:30 PM, Ward Silver wrote:
Dither your transmitting frequency, as well - move it back and forth a
couple hundred hertz with each QSO. Not so much that the pileup
moves with
you but enough to spread out your spot signature. Program it into a
macro
key or something.
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