I'm not entirely sure that attaching a raffle to a radio contest turns us
into professional radio operators any more than playing Texas Hold-em
at the
local Oddfellows Lodge turns people into Daniel Negreanu.
But... While I might disagree with Hans on the reasoning, I'm not sure I
disagree with him on the overall idea of "hurling it aside with great
force."
It is one thing to tell the 90 per cent of us who don't live on the
Atlantic
Rim "it's just for fun, compete among your peers" while the K1s and
PJ4s and
EA8s rack up win after win when the only thing at stake is fleeting
bragging
rights and an overpriced hunk of walnut. It is quite another to tell
people
"Please pay to enter my contest, but know that you'll only win one of the
radios if you're lucky enough to be geographically blessed."
Without some kind of handicapping system to even out geographic
disparity, I
suspect the response of most hams outside the blessed zones would be words
unsuitable for a family venue such as CQ-contest. And I suspect the
operators who did pay would, and perhaps should, be ignored by the rest of
us.
Now, if you had a sponsor and didn't have an entry fee, then I
wouldn't see
this as any different from when the Bermuda QSO Party awarded a trip to
Bermuda to the winner.
73, kelly
ve4xt