I had intended to totally stay out of this debate but find I can't resist.
First, I am amazed at the degree to which off-season politicking has
gone. From my perspective, some contesters have used contesting.com
to manipulate "public opinion" in a way that I personally find
disasteful at best. But, in reality, as I've noted before, contesting
is no different from dog shows or other pursuits, where the politics
of choosing the dog show judge who is favorable to you and your breed,
who prefers certain "conformation" to others, etc. is reality. There
is a "popularity contest" aspect to contesting, unfortunately -- be
well liked and people will tend to conform to your opinions. Two well
known contesters I know of who have done their share of winning are
widely spoken of behind the scenes as being known cheats and that
coming in second to them is like winning. Why they haven't been
busted more often, I don't know. Maybe it's just that a really clever
cheat can get away with it. Like the many detractors who say Lance
Armstrong must have been cheating because no one can win seven times
in a row. In fact, of these two cases in point, one is generally well
liked and accepted in contesting's leading clique. The other is
generally disliked and generally shunned. Frankly, I'm not into
"cliquishness" and I find it annoying to have it be so prevalent in
contesting.
On asking where VY1 is in a contest, or asking someone to hold your
frequency, I know for a fact that this was once considered an
"advanced operating technique." I am told by authorities in positions
to opine on it that, yes, that was the old school, but now there is a
new school. And, clearly, the new school is in the ascendancy. I
would note that it's understandable if there's some bump in the road
during the transition from the old school's way of doing things and
the new school's. The old school was W4GRF, W4KFC, W4BVV and the
like, the elite of contesting in their day. But they are gone and the
way they did things are not the way any longer. I was surprised to
learn that I am now in "the old school." As in other things in
life....with people my age retiring (early), etc.....things aren't
like they used to be. Some of us are sad to see some of the changes.
I see a decrease in gentlemanliness and maturity, a decrease in
"civility," too much "childishness," among contesters, that has been
noted in our culture at large.
And I see a tendency to criticize others readily (the "mote," or the
speck of dust in someone else's eye) but not "see the beam" in one's
own eye.
There are sorts of ethical questions that we or our friends can raise
on our behalf, all to manipulate others' opinions, and at the same
time set ourselves up as being the top muckety-mucks in our pursuit,
and "as pure as the driven snow" (even when we're not). How about
this one, if you actively encourage someone to get on in SS seriously
from your competitor's section, or even conspire to have that happen,
to hurt your cometitor's contest score? Makes you assisted, doesn't
it? No, clearly I'm being tongue in cheek. Others have their buddies
tell them, solicited and/or unsolicited, throughout the contest
weekend, what the QSO total of their competitor is. (in the W4KFC era
this was considered completely above board but I gather it no longer
is.) But, clearly, people "do things" to advance their contest
success, and if we "wanna be that way" we can criticize it for the
other 11-1/2 months of the year. Personally, I'm not into that.
I am reliably told that one or two guys or their friends record my
entire contest operation. I would guess that's to study what I'm
doing right so they can emulate it, and probably more so to find fault
with anything they can. Another guy has complete access to all the
logs and presumably has the discretion to share the info, in full
detail, with any others of the "contender clique" so they can discuss
it, slice it and dice it, discuss strategies and techniques to compete
more effectively -- clearly a conflict of interest, and then have the
audacity to make public on-line comments exposing their biases. To
me, life's too short for that, so you won't find me doing that.
73 - Rich KE3Q
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