Personally, I can’t think of a more worthless pursuit than criticizing
contesting.
Speaking for myself (but I suspect lots of others too), pursuing contesting
enabled to repeatedly test and expand the limits of my knowledge, memory,
reflexes, physical endurance, cognition, critical decision-making under duress
and handling extreme physical and mental stress, often while severely
physically compromised.
Contesting taught me how to excel and improve myself and my skills and how to
continually achieve more and become better and accept responsibility for the
results of my actions and inactions regardless of how I got into the situations
I found myself. I have had to learn so many areas of the physical world and
relearn many skills that I had left behind. I continue to use math,
trigonometry, physics, chemistry, meteorology, electronics, computer science
and programming and statistical modeling just to be able to build and put up
antennas and towers. And my study of Nutritional Biochemistry, Medicine and
Holistic Medicine has been invaluable in surviving my illnesses and maximizing
my performance in contests as well as in all facets of my non-radio life. And
over the decades, attempting to compete at the highest levels and against the
greatest odds gave me the reserves to overcome many obstacles and successfully
navigate crises that had life-altering ramifications for myself and my family.
Contesting honed all of my abilities and allowed me to see and measure my
progress
in real time.
Almost every non-radio accomplishment in my personal and professional life has
come as a result of what I learned from contesting; how to work individually,
as well as be part of a successful team. And many of the most enduring
memories of my life and enduring friendships were made as a result of contests
and contesting.
I could go on but I think it is obvious. Contesting has enriched my life
immeasurably, so much so that I can’t imagine what my life would have been like
without it. And in addition to all the things that I cited above, contesting
has been immensely enjoyable for me over the decades.
Many of the greatest inventors, communicators, technologists, salespeople,
businesspeople, teachers, soldiers, financial wizards, pro athletes and kind
and helpful people were and are contesters. It seems that wanting to learn,
strive and better ones self and/or help others seems to attract such
individuals.
The next time that you feel compelled to criticize contesting as a “worthless
pursuit”, ask yourself if any of things that I mentioned above would have
benefitted your life
Bob KQ2M
> I simply can't think of a more worthless pursuit in ham radio than contesting.
> Even showed up to field day to get a 5.9 GHz radio link going, and found out
> they can't count it as a "contact" for points. But hey, we got ARRL
> "radiograms", half the length of a tweet and twice as pointless!
>
> I've been involved in a few towers going up one even for ham radio, and I
> think the lowest we ever made it was a 52 MHz remote receiver for an repeater
> input. I'd love to ask that; "I have a question about my contesting
> propagation beacon that has a repeat function too", lolz.
>
> 73's
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
|