I'm rarely posting here but every now and then I'm reading what is being
discussed.
I thought to comment on this just from my own perspective. I don't see
this angle is well understood in the discussion.
I decided few years ago myself to pursue the goal of operating CQWW from
all 40 zones. To be exact I had thought that objective already for some
time and finally decided on it 2006 when drinking beer with good friend
N6ZZ in Curacao after operating at PJ2T in 2006 SSB contest. I had already
then operated the contest from 9 different zones. Since then I have added
10 more zones: 21, 38, 34, 19, 23, 39, 18, 36, 31, 3. Recently I got
stuck in ZD8 and last couple years have only added one new zone per year,
but maybe after this year I will unstuck myself and will resume 2 new zones
per year... Something to do for next 10 years or so...
Anyway, off those 10 new zones and stations I operated since 2006 stations
in zones 21, 18, 31, 3 had internet and packet easily available in the
shack. Maybe it would have been possible in couple others but it would
have required hogging house phone line for entire weekend and/or arranging
local ISP access as visitor to that country/island or doing something
wirelessly with local account (can be cumbersome as visitor in most of
these places). As far as I know internet access possibilities have not
changed much at any of the stations I operated from. All except zone 21
were SOAB non-assisted. In zone 21 we did M/S.
So internet is not quite everywhere and if the classes would be combined,
then I think I would probably try to find some QTHs where it would be
easier to have (like in zone 38 go to ZS instead of 3DA) and so it may not
be so interesting for me and perhaps sometimes less multipliers for
others. Also, there is already so much to arrange on many of these places,
hauling gear, setting up station often field day style, time constraints to
get in/out etc etc, that I just don't prefer to deal with internet and
packet and even less if it is not available by high speed connection. I
would probably also seek to participate more on some Multi operation rather
than doing it alone on some rock if it gets more complicated than it
already is.
So, my preference clearly is to keep categories separate but I have no
problem anyone participating as assisted in their category. And yes, I
suffer greatly from packet pile-ups but I see that as challenge of modern
times...
73 de Marko N5ZO
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