What I'm going to say doesn't appeal to me personally, since I contest as
an S/O CW operator without Internet in the shack, but if we are going to
make radiosporting interesting to young people, future radio contesting has
to be all about the Internet. That will mean real-time scoring, photos of
competitors in action, screen-shots of stations and antennas posted, the
use of data bases to make the progress of the competition interesting in
real time. In addition, remote operation options are going to have to be an
essential part of any planning since more and more people, plus the youth
in particular, are not going to have access to a station that will provide
them with a fun and challenging experience.
This Pokeman Go sensation is an indicator of the use of location and
virtually-real emoji characters that could be used to make radiosporting
more current. I'm not the one to come up with these features, but there are
people in the gaming industry who can. Some sponsor should cooperate with
state-of-the-art video technology and define a competition that is
thoroughly based on location and real-time interactions. The participation
numbers of our sport are peaking now, but in twenty years, with
restrictions on antennas and more crowded housing development, plus the
aging of the ham radio population, the writing is on the proverbial wall.
Jim N3BB
At 10:23 PM 7/23/2016 -0400, Jeff Clarke wrote:
Since a "fair" worldwide DX contest isn't realistic then get rid of all
the awards for World and Continental winners. Breakdown all the
leaderboards and awards by regions. The current leaderboards aren't really
relevant because it's like comparing apples to oranges.
The "haves" are always going to shoot down any ideas that others have anyway.
Truthfully this whole discussion will be irrelevant in 10-15 years anyway
since we don't attract much youth in our hobby and our "radio contesting
game". Sorry to be so pessimistic but that's the reality. Enjoy it when
you can!
Jeff
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
|