On 12/6/2018 5:52 AM, N4ZR wrote:
At the point where the operator's brain no longer has a role, I have
lost all competitive interest
In ANY ham station, SOMEONE'S brain is or has been involved in
choosing/designing/constructing the station, including antennas,
transmission lines, switching, computer interface, computer software,
transceiver(s), amplifier(s), filters, and stubs, and in knowing enough
about propagation and the performance of the station's antennas to know
which bands to use at what times and where to point those antennas.
And I suggest that anyone who thinks winning contesters are not using
their brains have a seat over the shoulder of guys like W0YK or WK6I
running three radios and six or nine decoders in a RTTY contest, or N6MJ
on CW.
And I contend that an op who does ALL or most of these functions is a
FAR better contester than one who sits down at a super station and
starts operating. Because he's my neighbor, I know that K6XX fits this
category -- Bob has built his entire antenna system (with the exception
of the Yagis he bought), including building and climbing the towers,
running the hard line to keep the loss to all of them below 1 dB on
every band, and designing and building a unique control system for his
5-position multi-multi shack. Not only that, but Bob is employed by
Elecraft, where he has been the principal manufacturing engineer for
their power amps. Guys like Bob are my contesting heroes. And it's why I
choose to operate from my own station, which I designed and Bob helped
me build (he built both towers and rigged all the antennas) rather than
drive to super-stations W6YX or N6RO.
73, Jim K9YC
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