NP4Z wrote:
>>I dont see how highly commited individuals or single parents or guys
with two jobs can keep trying to improve their level of competition and
improvement if they know that something along the way will create a
complication for some part of their weekend.<<
i'm a young guy, 31, have a toddler and loving wife - we just reached 5 years
of marriage. we are working out a system that requires each of us to mark down
on the calendar when we have upcoming events. we do this on a quarterly basis.
if we have a conflict, the obviously more important event wins. if both are
trivial, we put both down on the calendar and when we get closer to that date,
we decide then. i rate my events based on desire level. 3 stars is a con not
miss - no star is sort of interested. so far, it has worked out well since
implemented last fall.
in the ARRL DX SSB contest, my wife had things come up, i just worked watching
our son into the contesting schedule. the more disruptive conflicts were of my
own doing. i volunteered to help a marathon event before i was a contester. i
also gave up going to my contesting club meetings that are held on a monday
because she has a meeting every monday - i get to play radio and see gets to go
to her meetings. she also gets other concessions, i know her ring size very
well.
there are ways to work things out. i guess i'm lucky in that i don't need
permission from my wife to do anything, i just have to give her enough of a
heads up so she can plan around it. i think for the WPX, she is going to visit
a friend out of state who has a son the same age as our little guy. she knows
i'd be bored out of my mind if we all went so she is taking advantage of the
"free" weekend.
i don't even know what i'm, going to have to do as payback for Dayton though.
i'll be gone for 5 days. i better get a lock on the big contests next fall
right away.
-steve hanlon
KB3KAQ
---------------------------------------------------------------
The world's top contesters battle it out in Finland!
THE OFFICIAL FILM of WRTC 2002 now on professional DVD and VHS!
http://home1.pacific.net.sg/~jamesb/
---------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
|