Radiosport is the only type of contest I know of where you increase your
score by increasing the other guy's, too. It's just a matter of - can you
increase more people's scores than he can? :-)
73, Zack W9SZ
On Sun, Dec 18, 2016 at 6:24 PM, Jim Stahl via CQ-Contest <
cq-contest@contesting.com> wrote:
> I suspect there is one factor missing from radiosport that kids and many
> others unfamiliar with it miss: defense. In nearly every other sport or
> game I can think of (golf and track are a few exceptions) you are not just
> trying to win, but trying to beat your opponent or opponents. And no,
> “defending” your frequency from somebody trying to use it is not defense.
> Defense is doing something to prevent your opponent(s) from scoring.
>
> I don’t want anybody trying to stop me from scoring in Radiosport. But
> without it, the competition will seem pretty tame to the uninitiated.
>
>
> 73 - Jim K8MR
>
>
>
> > On Dec 18, 2016, at 12:42 PM, W0MU Mike Fatchett <w0mu@w0mu.com> wrote:
> >
> > I had the opportunity to talk to my son in more detail and ask him why
> contesting does not interest him. Here is what we discussed.
> >
> > 1. Cost to get in the game and have a chance to win is prohibitive.
> You need a great station, land, etc to really win or compete. The playing
> field is so unbalanced that it becomes a show stopper. For him he has no
> costs when at home. I consider my station modest with a 70 ft tower and
> land to put up Inv L's and full sized 80m verticals and some receiving
> antennas. I could do more but we have horses and they need to roam and are
> hell on things in the pasture.
> >
> > 2. You have to invest a lot of time to get good. If he can not have a
> really good station then why invest the time to get good if you are not
> going to be able to really compete.
> >
> > 2. The tools we use to contest, logging software, packet look like old
> dos programs. He called them ugly and boring. He is used to amazing
> graphics in games. I found this observation interesting. I feel that the
> tools we have are pretty good and give me what I want to see readily
> available. I was not expecting this answer.
> >
> > 3. He is far more interested in using packet where he can immediately
> chase things. Packet essentially gives him a list of things to do or
> goals. It is more visual so more interesting. He thought that more
> automated systems would be interesting. Young people and even us older
> folk expect things to happen much faster. They are the generation of
> instant satisfaction and some of that even rubs off on us older folk.
> >
> > 4. Talking to someone over the airwaves is still pretty cool. You can
> instantly talk around the world if the right condx exist, but we can talk
> all over the world with our phones so it is not as amazing as it once was.
> >
> > 5. CW is interesting but he was surprised that we don't have better code
> readers. While he would like to learn the code time is once again the
> factor. They have so many other outlets for entertainment that it is hard
> to find time for all of them.
> >
> > 6. Results take far too long to come out
> >
> > 7. He proposed that all participants use a scoreboard type system.
> Many of us have said this was something we need to do but have instead met
> with amazing resistance and a ton of excuses why people refuse to use it.
> A system where everyone can check it out and see what is going in in the
> contest. We are back to visuals.
> >
> > 6. Playing radio in the car driving is fun because there is not much
> else to do but drive.
> >
> > 7. He has his general license but he does not have the technical skills
> or electronic knowledge to build a shack or decent station. I am not a
> great teacher especially to my own kids so I take some of the blame for
> this but it is hard to teach people things when they don't want to devote
> much time to it. I feel a reluctance to even try to do something without
> having the proper knowledge. A far cry from when I was young and tried all
> sorts of silly antennas and projects that mostly failed miserably but boy
> did I learn from those mistakes.
> >
> > That pretty much summed up our hour long conversation and I am no closer
> to figuring out how to sell ham radio and contesting to them. I hope some
> will find this information helpful and interesting.
> >
> > W0MU
> >
>
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