As contesters we are very much in tune with cycles and other repetitive events,
ranging from the 11 year sunspot cycle, to yearly contest cycles, to the daily
openings to Europe and Asia. Contesting controversies seem to be cyclical, as
well, although they don't seem to correlate to any other observed variables.
They sputter to life immediately after contests, degrade gracefully after
initial outbursts, but continue to flare up for years afterwards.
These controversies have filled hundreds, probably thousands, of QSO hours on
75 phone, two meter FM, and now Packetcluster talk. The bandwidth used by these
controversial discussions has essentially been free in the past, although the
beat pig farmers might disagree. However, as rn warns you when you go to post a
note to one of the bazillion newsgroups on the Internet, email discussions on
the Internet costs oodles of dollars, tying up important bandwidth that could
be used to download .gif hi-res graphic files from the
alt.bestiality.hamster.duct-tape archives.
In the interest of minimizing bandwidth, and much in the spirit of Samuel F.B.
Morse who assigned the least number of code elements to those letters that were
most used by the typesetters of the day, I propose numbering the most
Frequently Addressed Quarrels (FAQ) per the following list. Each major heading
has a subcategory that can be appended to make the particular FAQ session more
personal. For instance, VE5EKK could simply send the following email message:
To: cq-contest@tgv.com
From: VE5EKK@moose.univ.ca
Subj: 1/Saskatoon/Harvard, MA
Even with no text in the body of the message we would all know that some K1 in
Harvard, MA with a few puny towers, pitiful antennas, and a couple of computers
whomped me in the last contest. It would immediately be obvious to all that the
reason for the whomping was Geographic Inequities, without me needing to
explain about the 10,000 foot mountains on either side of my house and the
electrical storms that move in four times each year.
The list follows:
Frequently Addressed Quarrels
-------------------------------
1. Geographic inequities
A. My location
B. The location of the lid who beat me
2. Contest length
A. They are too long
B. Only wimps think they are too long
3. The latest technology has taken all the skill out of contesting
A. Let's go back to AM, straight keys, and D104s.
B. Let's create a new category for virtual reality assisted ops
4. Rules for cohabitating bands during a contest
A. Real(tm) ops can work thru QRM (also known as K3ZO mode)
B. Kindler, gentler ops say ___ before CQing
5. Copying callsigns correctly
A. Yes, I know he had more Qs but my unique rate was lower
B. What do you mean 5G5G and V2BAS are uniques?
6. Running Illegal Power
A. VOA would be proud
B. I can't afford an Alpha, all contests should be 100w
7. Rubber clocking, working the callbook, using assistance (cheating in
general)
A. See I would have won, but ...
B. We need a contesters rules of ethics
C. Cheaters never prosper
8. How to attract new contesters
A. Make contests easier
B. Non-wimps will contest, no matter what
C. Have more contests
9. The ARRL is ...
A. Satan incarnate
B. Just there
C. All hail to Hiram
10. I would have won but ...
A. Family excuses
B. Job excuses
C. Equipment excuses
D Truly innovative excuses (anything to do with llamas)
E. See Illegal Power and Cheating in General
F. See Geographic Inequities
G. There was a contest?
I have eliminate some of the old controversies that used to appear:
Multi-multis are all lids
Guest ops are all lids
Sweepstakes should allow you to work the same station on different bands
Wayne Green
Why is CQ WW CW after Thanksgiving?
The Sprints start too early/late
The CQWW committee favors certain ops/groups
etc.
John WB2EKK
PESCATORE_JT@NCSD.GTE.COM
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