I really don't think technology per se is the issue here. It's the
appeal of competition. There are all sorts of extremely popular
activities that involve competition that have nothing to do with
technology. Barbeque is competitive now. Herding with dogs is
competitive. Quilting is competitive. Bird watching is competitive.
The list is endless, and most have nothing to do with technology.
Technology may have been an early draw for hams and contesting, but that
isn't the case anymore and it doesn't need to be. Chess is fascinating
even without a computer because it pits one move immediately against
another with quick feedback regarding the impact.
I've tried to come up with an idea for a ham radio contest where a
player could somehow prevent another player from getting credit for a
QSO. Not by QRM'ing him, of course, but by some real time action that
would negate his score for that contact. Or maybe where one player
could augment the score of a teammate by working the same station within
a certain period of time. I use these for illustration only, the idea
being to compete directly and immediately against other players.
Hopefully somebody smarter than I can come up with some good ideas, but
my point is that it's exactly this sort of thing that radiosport lacks
compered with the other things with which it competes for attention.
Immediacy and action/counteraction. Not technology.
With that I'm going to bow out of this thread. I wanted to make the
point but have no interest in flogging it.
73,
Dave AB7E
On 3/24/2016 8:04 PM, Dave Thompson wrote:
I agree with several reports that it took several years for amateur radio and amateur radio contesting to catch up with the computer revolution. I bought my first CAT YAESU in 1983 but it only supported the old apple not the newer IBM PC. I would up with a Wang Professional PC in 1985 and finally got a DOS program and proper interface to run PC control of the transceiver. K4SB (SK) had written a program for the TRS-80 and adapted it to the IBM PC. Still no real logging programs insight for contesting until K1EA wrote CT and Dave K8CC wrote NA.
Don N4IN asked me to help with the CQ WW 160 Contests as he needed PC help and
help with the SSB section that started in 1881. He and K4SB had written simple
programs for his TRS-80 The main program was a master list which started with
big logs like WB9Z being typed in. The log checking program was low level and
all logs were hand written so trying to use the log checking program was not
feasible. His XYL Helen got an IBM PC in about 1989 and I got K4SB to help
move the programs to the PC. By 1992 many logs were in NA or CT but culling
out actual QSOs from header and break lines was difficult. Don viewed each log
as a personal letter to him and he would spend hours manually cross checking
the logs. I have examples of logs that were at best almost pure fabrications.
As many as 60% were uniques and one log had maybe 300 good QSOs in a 1200 QSO
log. HE DQed several each year and I now did the same for SSB. We got about
50% of the logs into K4SB's programs but still d
id
manual cross checking. I got several SEDXC hams to help but it was obvious
we needed something better.
The cabrillo format was designed by several active contesters led by Trey now
N5KO. After Don passed away I found WT4I was writing a log checking suite that
even included a cabrillo converter for programs like CT and NA.
I sure could have used this in past years.
I feel there is still resistance to new technologies today and we OT's can
often stand in the way of younger contesters and innovation.
Back when I started contesting in 1958 many were youngsters as young as 10. Dave K1ZZ was
into contesting at an early age and I remember a quote in a 1969 QST for the ARRL SS
"that youngsters were snapping up many awards." As many of us age we need to
welcome the new hams into contesting and remember we are competing with gamers like my
son who spend hours on line. He got his degree in IT and now works for a Fiber optic
Cisco Competitor. His attitude is amateur radio is far behind the technology curve. This
was echoed by the then the FCC Chairman and son of Colin Powell. On a flight he saw me
reading QST and upon asking if I was a ham he asked if we still used old technologies
such as CW, RTTY, or SSB. This was about 15 years or more ago.
Dave K4JRB
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