Paul,
That is progress, don't you get it?
Contesting, competition is getting modernized, technology is helping us.
You worry about ham radio? Look around.
Sex robots are having sex for you, you don't have to bother.
Self driving cars can transport dummies.
Transgenders are creaming women's sports records and beating them,
making them irrelevant.
Kids are getting glued to their phones, they don't know how to deal with
real humans.
PC crap is replacing religion. Politicians take our money and then screw
us.
There are some areas where things stay classic, like sail boat races of
boats without engines,
cycling using bicycles without engines, running in sneakers (oops,
springy artificial legs creeping in)
Ham radio is keeping archaic contest rules, but bringing technology to
"no need for ham".
You are contester, but no station? No problem rentastation in the
country of your choice, it is just extended mike and headphones. Can't
hear the DX? Dial remote RX. Internet will bring you points and
multipliers, just click. With FT8, you don't even need to hear who you
are working.
I'm having problem with reconciling rentastations. If you built the
remote station and YOU are operating it, don't see problem. You were
licensed to get that callsign, you built that licensed station, you
operate it.
But if someone licensed AB1C, operates purchased remote station licensed
XY9Z in Spartly, WTF?
People are licensed, get the callsign to operate transmitting station
they are licensed to build, own, operate. I do not see FT1000 going to
FCC for license, callsign, setting the rentastation XY9Z and advertising
time for sale. Come, pretend to be DX or whatever. Someone had to do it
to let someone else to pretend to be there.
It is sad to see ham radio drifting away. I am glad I lived through the
golden years when humans used their skills to build and operate their
stations and admired and communicated with other fellow hams. It was
magic of building, learning, honing the skills and using radios to meet
people on the air. Callsign meant something. Now you don't know who/what
is at the other end. Welcome to fun?
Looks like progress will zoom by us and maybe we will not need any of
that, ESP might provide us with communication, no need for even talking.
Just sad to see hams putting jet engines on their bicycles, competing in
Tour de France.
I will keep few old fashion radios, just in case disaster wipes out all
that high tech. I will be tuning around trying to help.
Yuri, K3BU.us
MVmanor.com - place for Radiofest
On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 04:50 PM, Paul O'Kane wrote:
As we move ever closer to fully-automated data modes, the divide
between data and
non-data modes gets bigger. When and if the operator becomes
incidental, what will
be the point of such contest QSOs - other than bragging that my
software is smarter
than yours?
WSJT-X may be the "flavour of the month" now - but, next month, or
certainly next
year, something "better" will turn up - as the potential for "new and
improved" data
modes is limitless. Some see this as progress in amateur radio and
contesting - I see
it as progress in automated two-way data processing over RF.
It seems to me that any mode that is not and can not be decoded by
individual
contesters (people) in real-time does not truly represent amateur
radio. But what
would I know, being just an old-fashioned (outdated?) contester who
keeps to
phone and CW :-)
Some will argue that we have to keep up, we can't stop progress, and
that amateur
radio and contesting are evolving. I say that data modes are evolving
into something
else entirely.
73,
Paul EI5DI
On 23/10/2018 19:40, Brian Moran via CQ-Contest wrote:
Joe, K1JT posted announcement of a dry-run to test WSJT-X in a
contest setting. The post was to the WSJT-X mailing list, but it's
about contesting, so it's likely relevant to readers of this list, as
well. Upcoming versions of the WSJT-X software will have the ability
to make some contest exchanges, and I'm sure the WSJT-X development
team could benefit from the collective expertise of long-time
contesters. Here's an excerpt from the announcement:
A one-hour "practice contest" will be held tomorrow (Wednesday
evening, NA time) using the FT8 mode and the ARRL RTTY Roundup
rules.
Date and time: Thursday, 25 October 0200-0300 UTC
Dial frequency 7.078 (and higher, in 2 kHz increments, if too much
QRM). Everyone works everyone.
To participate you must use WSJT-X 2.0.0-rc3
See the link above for the entire announcement-Brian N9ADG
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