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Re: [CQ-Contest] Posting Scores

To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Posting Scores
From: W0MU Mike Fatchett <w0mu@w0mu.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2015 11:25:15 -0600
List-post: <cq-contest@contesting.com">mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
I have found most people that are not in Ham Radio are very interested and intrigued in contesting and that we fly to islands in the Caribbean and setup field day style operations so we can talk to lots of people around the world.

Most find this quite fascinating.

I would agree there is not much to watch in an rtty contest.

I think watching a SO2R CW or SSB op do his thing where the listener and view can hear and see what is going on would be pretty wild.

If contesting were not interesting already it would have died long ago.

I just don't understand all the push back. Lets just shoot ourselves in the foot. The negativity is real.

How about a user defined scoreboard for the NCCC , FRC, GMCC where you can watch other club members. Mini contests within the contest for the clubs. Who can post the best 12 hour score, best low power, newbie class. Maybe your NA QP team is listed to you can see where you stand. I could see this being a huge motivational tool. Damn I am 5 qsos behind W0XX and 6 mults. I better push harder.

The possibilities are wide open unless you just want to continue to slam the door on it.




Mike W0MU

On 3/26/2015 8:20 AM, Ward Silver wrote:
> Watching an actual operation to see the fun and actually operating is going to do that.

Who among us has ever actually watched someone operating a radio contest?

/sarcasm_on
CW or RTTY contest:
[15 minutes of silence and keyboard clicking]
Dammit!
[more silence and clicking]

Phone contest:
Call sign five nine something [pause, click click] thanks your call sign
Call sign five nine something [pause, click click] thanks your call sign
Call sign five nine something [pause, click click] thanks your call sign
Dammit!
Call sign five nine something [pause, click click] thanks your call sign
/sarcasm_off

As a several-times WRTC referee, I can attest that without full involvement in the action, it's not very much fun. Actually, the better the competitor, the less there is to watch. It would be like watching video from a GoPro camera mounted on a marathon runner - if it's interesting, they're losing :-)

Seriously, the "metadata" is a required part of what would make radiosport interesting, even to other hams. Radiosport is a sport that happens in our *head* and not much else, physically. Where is the beam pointed, how loud are signals, who are you going to pick out of the pile, when are you going to drop your call in, who else was calling that you beat to the DX, what's happening on the second radio, think you can move that mult to 15, when is 40 going to open to Japan, who's crowding in below you, etc etc etc.

This is why it's hard to explain to non-hams and even non-contesters what the attraction is. Real-time score reporting is just a start - you don't have to watch anybody else's score, of course, and the top ops probably will never look at those web pages...which is fine. Unless we are going to replace ourselves exclusively through one-on-one mentoring, we should be thinking about how to make the sport something others can experience to some degree as a spectator and that means the whole sport and not just numbers or the back of our heads.

73, Ward N0AX
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