This note is intended as a historical perspective and not a whine or complaint.
In 2003, my good friend Tom,WX4TM introduced me to RTTY and RTTY contesting.
One of the first things I noticed was that several of the top scoring stations were 
quite modest antenna-wise and power-wise. 

I asked Tom where all the big stations were,comparing RTTY with CW and SSB contest stations.
Tom was firmly in the camp which said that operator skill was much more important in RTTY
contesting than having a big antenna system and lots of power. Perhaps so, thought I, but I 
really wasn't convinced.

In an effort to demonstrate my belief, I got serious in 2004. I have ten acres, but few 
supports(trees) above 45 feet. I put a 204ba at 66 feet on the only tower I've got.I added
a 4 element 40 m beam aimed at EU only at 45 feet in the trees.I built a 3 element yagi 
for 15m and an inverted L for 80m. I have continued to try to improve my 80m performance 
because I know that my time is now. It is now for at least two reasons
 1. I'm old,nearly 70, and in poor health.  
 2. the sunspot cycle is at the bottom, so that I can still gain advantage over those stations
    who do not have good 40 or 80 meter antennas.

Within a couple of years, I'll be older and sunspots will be higher, As ten meters becomes
more reliable as well as 15, and with 20m open all the tine, the SO2R crowd will dominate
completely!!

This does not bother me at all, because I plan to limit my contesting to contests which 
reward distance and which give more points for 80m contacts. EAWW RTTY, Makrothen and OK 
DX come to mind.The XE RTTY contest is good because of the So2R-SO!R split.

Based on my experience in other competitve activities,particularly tournament BRIDGE, it
is easy to predict that the success of SO2R and the lack of respect shown by many of them
will lead to a wholesale defection by SO1R which will dramatically reduce participation 
and eventually the number of events.

The more you ignore history, the more certainly you 
will repeat its mistakes.

In the for what it's worth department.

73,

Darrell
K9MUG