Our Club has run 3A for the last 4 yrs, dedicating one of those radios to
RTTY.. each year, we kept hoping participation would be better.. but it
just hasn't happened.. Expecting participation to be down again this year,
and with only one CW operator and a group of new hams, we dropped
our participation category to 2A.. then time shared between the CW,
RTTY and Phone stations.. it worked out pretty good getting about 350
CW Q's, 110 RTTY, 600 SSB and 350 GOTA. We also notice a
tremendous number of 1D contacts (home, commercial power) which
seems to indicate a growing trend of more and more hams staying home
instead of getting out and supporting their local club. All, of which,
in my opinion, indicates a continuing decline in the interest, participation
and committment to Amateur Radio in general. I hope I'm wrong!
Tom Moore WX4TM
East Alabama ARC (Opelika AL)
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