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[TenTec] Choice of Rigs for Contests

To: tentec@contesting.com
Subject: [TenTec] Choice of Rigs for Contests
From: John Rippey <w3uls@3n.net>
Reply-to: tentec@contesting.com
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 14:44:38 -0500
List-post: <mailto:tentec@contesting.com>
I can imagine a bunch of reasons why most "big guns" use FT-1000MPs, which admittedly will be eligible for display at the Smithsonian as museum artifacts before long. And the main reason has nothing to do with performance. It's familiarity. These folks depend on a bunch of volunteer ops descending on their QTH for a weekend of work/play. The only rigs the various ops know by heart are those MPs. If a contest station suddenly presented these volunteers with a bunch of nifty new software-driven rigs to play with, there would be pandemonium as they tried to learn it in a few hours/minutes. So I think, oddly, the last people to switch over to superior, modern equipment like the ORION or the forthcoming IC-7800 will be these "big guns."

The lucky contesters are the single ops who can take the time to learn how to take advantage of what software-driven radios can do for them. Meantime, Yaesu and the "big guns" seem caught in a time warp.

By the way, has anyone noticed that QST has hired a new tech editor and made him responsible for QST rig reviews, and that his main rig at home appears to be an OMNI VI? He also operates mainly CW. Miracles never cease (I'm talking about the CW preference).

73,
John, W3ULS

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