<Begin pompous diatribe>
Hi Jeff,
Naaah, I would not make that assumption. This is all speculation, and a bit of
curiosity on my end on where people's heads are, regarding this. Obviously, I
didn't even get the WPX rule change correctly.
I'm more interested in the future of contesting, including the mix of IT and RF
that has already affected it so much, as well as many other parts of the hobby.
I also enjoy pointing out the elephant in the room. At least in the U.S.
right now, M/M distributed is mostly a chance to demonstrate the capabilities
of RHR. They have great technology, and a business model that pisses off a lot
of people, and underneath that is a fear that their type of technology, used by
the best operators, may do to MultiOps, what "mutants" :) using 2BSIQ and SO2R
did to Single Ops.
Speaking for myself only, but I know there are others in similar situations, my
life savings, as well as a huge emotional and time investment are in an old
school, designed for the purpose, in person M/M station, which also tries to
take advantage of every bit of modern technology possible. I want to defend
that space. Contesting has to continue to have meaning for "A boy and his
radio", and "The gang at W3LPL" no matter what. It's kind of like CW. A
relatively small percentage of hams use it on a regular basis, but it's still
at the core of the hobby.
Having said that, besides Amateur Radio, I also do Amateur Bloviating about all
sorts of things :) Like RHR or not, I believe they have found a path that will
keep the average age of a contester somewhere South of 80 y/o. The potential
of eSport (e.g. Twitch), social media, and chat, combined with the randomness
of RF and propagation, and a Part 97 that gives the technically inclined, an
endless amount of ability to experiment and tinker, is mind blowing. It's
going to be scary, or uninteresting, to many, because you are basically
leapfrogging from 1978 to 2020 without stopping in between. I dearly hope
though, that it becomes more of an "open source" community, rather than
proprietary. Proprietary, to me, is not in the "ham spirit."
</End pompous diatribe>
73
Steve KL7SB
On Wed, 2 Jun 2021 18:33:41 -0400, Jeff Clarke <ku8e@ku8e.com> wrote:
So CQ appears to be open to adding new categories? I find this
interesting considering that a prominent member of the CQ Contest
Committee made a comment during the Dayton Contest University that "we
already have too many categories and if we just keep adding more then
everyone will end up win a plaque". I guess it just has to be the
"right" category suggested by the "right" connected people to be
considered? There aren't even that many traditional M/M's that take
place in most contests so why add another M/M category?
Here's one for you...Why not add a WIRES-ONLY category? This would be a
different category than TB-WIRES. I bet you would have many more
entries in a category like this then you would ever have in the M/M
distributed category. There are many more stations (including some
very good contesters) that use only wire antennas compared to those who
have a tower with beam antennas. The "wires only" crowd seems to be off
the radar of those who run the major contests.
Jeff
On 6/2/2021 09:47 AM, Ron Notarius W3WN via CQ-Contest wrote:
> Going forward, the question in my mind would be "are there going to be enough
> M/M teams worldwide operating in future contests to make the category viable?"
> If there are only a very few capable and willing to do so, under 'normal' (ie
> non-pandemic) circumstances... in my mind, ten or less, but everyone may have
> a different number in mind, YMMV... then the category may not be sustainable
> at the present time. In which case, there ought to be no need for a
> confrontation, major or otherwise.
> OTOH, as technology and station capabilities improve, this may become a
> viable category in a few years. In which case, revisit the issue then,
> 73
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stephen Bloom
> To: cq-contest@contesting.com
> Sent: Wed, Jun 2, 2021 9:04 am
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] You gotta let me know, should M/M Distributed stay or
> go.
>
> We're now a few days past what is likely the last COVID affected contest.
> What do y'all think should or will happen with M/M Distributed. Designated
> as a one time COVID exception, I can see this as the major confrontation
> between the pro and anti RHR camps. Thoughts?73Steve KL7SB
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