----- Original Message -----
From: "Jerry Flanders" <jeflanders@comcast.net>
To: "RTTY Mailing List" <RTTY@contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2006 9:52 AM
Subject: [RTTY] Not to beat the ADVANTAGE OF BIG ANTENNAS horse...
> WHEREAS WHEN ALL ELSE IS EQUAL, the addition of a BIG TOWER AND BEAM is
> and has
> been proven to be a significant contesting advantage, often greater than
> the
> High Power advantage, as shown by resultant contest scores and acclaimed
> to
> by many top ranking MULTI-KILOBUCK ANTENNA SYSTEM participants; and...
I have known many examples of wire antennas outperforming big beam antennas
in certain contests, locations, and propagation conditions. For instance,
even in the NAQP, a good wire antenna with multiple lobes oriented in the
right directions, not nearly as high as the big beam, located in the middle
of the country, will outperform a high beam that has a low take off angle,
narrow bandwidth with good fb and side to side rejection (a great dx
antenna, but easily beat in a many contest environments). We could go on and
on and on about what is equal, west coast vs east coast, being located on
salt water, living in the midwest black hole, the north or the south, big
beam, little beams, tower heights, height above average terrain, QRP, etc,
etc. Every time this SO2R issue surfaces, we get all kinds of this "off the
primary subject" diversion which I suspect is meant to do just that by some
No, I'm not accusing or pointing a finger at any particular person. And, I'm
confident most people firmly believe what they're saying. I just believe
they're wrong and I have the right to say so without it seeming to be a
personal attack or receiving a personal attack in return. No matter what,
SO2R seems to be a super heated issue to quite a few people. Many seem to
think it is a personal attack on them when it clearly is not. Many will not
listen to any reason or justification without diluting it with off subject
issues - sometimes resulting in derogatory personal or group attacks. We all
have the right to express our opinion and beliefs without that.
In recent years, contest sponsors have been slowly migrating away from rules
for which violations are not easily detectable and proven. Whether or not we
want to accept it, the drive to win ocassionally (many believe more than
ocassionally) results in some form of cheating particularly with the claim
of using low power when close by observers will say it was high power (but
can't conclusively prove it). And contest sponsors just don't want the
hassle of trying to prove or disprove anything thats not immediately and
conclusively detectable - which SO2R vs SO1R easily is. In fact it would
probably be the most easily detectable and enforceable rule of all.
So if we don't want to consider the SO2R issue as valid, then the next best
thing to do is just do away with all the classes, rules, etc and just go
with a 'anything with the most Q's wins' approach. Some contests are very
close to that now. Yep that includes the multi multi classes too because
SO2R entries often outperform them! So where do we draw the line? Do
contest sponsors draw up all kinds of rules which requires hundreds of
hours, days, weeks and months to score? Do they try to make them just a
little more fair by addressing significant issues (what's significant to
who?), or just what? Where's the happy balance?
I strongly suspect we'll continue to live with archaic meaningless rules
that traditionally favor the big guns all at the expense of the majority of
participants. Of course, the easy way out is if you don't like the rules,
don't participate. And while most contests continue to show growth in total
numbers, few are showing increases in serious competitors. Which, by the
way, is what a contest is supposed to be all about: Compeition! You put
together the best station you can and come compete! Eveybody is different
and evey station is different. But be advised that contest rules don't (and
never will) accurately and fairly have rules that could possibly cover each
and every situation. Again, where's the happy balance?
just another 2 cents worth - take that back, make it just a single penny's
worth! It's probably not even worth that to some.
73, Tom WX4TM
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