I jumped into the Stew Perry last night. SO low power. I did fine 241
contacts and whatever points. I have to say that what I missed about
not having packet is a sense of the contest going on around me. I was a
participant but I was in my own world, not the world of the contest.
With packet you can see what is opening up, who is where, changes in the
band, you can learn and for me I have a more visual sense of the
contest. Many people are much more visual learners or visual people
while others can learn more from their ears. I must fall into the
visual side of things.
I admit I had some good runs a number of times. When things started to
slow down I found my interest in the contest waning. Before the pacific
opened to KH6 and beyond I packed it in. It was not that fun any more.
I seriously considered using packet to stay active, instead I went to
bed. If I had chosen packet I probably would have stayed on and made
more contacts which would have been good for everyone.
Unfortunately, this contest also dumps SO packet into a class with
multiops. Their contest their rules. Would more people get on for
contests if packet was embraced more? Are we at a point in contest
where we don't want more participants or should we try to get more
people into the contest. More people to work for me is always a good
thing. I don't know about you but I get real tired of the cq machine
and slow rates. I have no way to know if I am working someone who found
me using packet or not and I don't care. I am glad that someone found
me and wanted to work me.
I have received a number of emails off the list because people are
afraid that they might get blasted or even blacklisted by their fellow
contester hams because they share a different view. Is this really what
contesting has become? Is so, shame on all of us. There are people
that agree with me that are afraid to post on what should be an open
forum to discuss contesting. I also wondered myself if I was shooting
myself in the foot and people are not working me because they don't like
me or what I write. Yesterday I worked one of the NPOTA stations and he
recognized my call and said he had read my posts on the reflector and
thanked me for my comments.
For what it is worth.
W0MU
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