Lately this reflector has been a place where halfway thought out
ideas go to be debated to death. However it is also read by ARRL
directors, CQ committee members, officers of major contest clubs,
owners of multi-multi stations, and others who make a difference.
Those are the people this e-mail is directed to.
Ever since the removal of the Morse Code requirement for US ham
licenses the ARRL website (www.arrl.org) has had headlines about
the large number of people taking license exams. The numbers
suggest thousands of new hams. That means thousands of potential
new contesters.
We should be recruiting these people.
We want them to operate contests and we want them to submit logs.
This means we need publicity. We need to tell these people that
contesting is fun and that it is easy. We need to make sure they
can find and understand the rules. We need to provide friends and
Elmers. And we need to provide incentives to submit the logs.
I realize there are downsides as well as upsides to this:
There will be more crowding on the bands during contests.
But there will be more people to work.
NQ4I will work more zero-point stations in the CQ WW SSB.
But some of his next generation of operators may be among
them.
There will be more busted packet spots. Recognizing busted
spots is a skill. If you use packet you should learn the
skill.
The alternative is that there will be thousands of new hams who
don't understand and don't like contesting.
Ham radio contesting is a unique product (and something you can't
do on the Internet). In the past our major sales techniques have
been "people will hear it on the air" and "Field Day". But this
is different - we have a limited time while these hams are fresh
and enthusiastic, before they conclude HF is a bunch of wheezers
hanging out on 75 and 20 phone.
I really don't know how to do all this. It may require time, a
precious commodity. And money - I'm willing to chip in, just tell
me what and how.
I don't expect the ARRL do do much. Although many officers and HQ
staffers are supportive of contesting it is not that popular among
the membership. Likewise the CQ Committee members already put in
huge amounts of time on this hobby. Can the major contest clubs help?
This may not be the best forum for this discussion - I fully expect
to see posts nit-picking my e-mail or using it as an excuse to blast
packet or to propose changes to contest rules. That's fine, I have
sharp filters.
Paul, K1XM
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