[CCF] Vl: [CQ-Contest] N2RM packetless M/2 details

jari.jokiniemi@nokia.com jari.jokiniemi@nokia.com
Fri, 22 Feb 2002 08:39:25 +0200


Omapa on asiansa, jos haluavat omalta osaltaan kääntää kehitystä vuosikymmeniä taakse päin. 

-Jari, OH3BU

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ext Ari Korhonen [mailto:ari.korhonen@kolumbus.fi]
> Sent: 21 February 2002 15:12
> To: CCF
> Subject: [CCF] Vl: [CQ-Contest] N2RM packetless M/2 details
> 
> 
> N2RM:n pojat pani klusterin kiinni kisan ajaksi!
> 
> Ari, OH1EH
> -----Alkuperäinen viesti-----
> Lähettäjä: James Neiger <n6tj@sbcglobal.net>
> Vastaanottaja: John Golomb <kz2s@hiway1.exit109.com>; 
> cq-contest@contesting.com <cq-contest@contesting.com>
> Päivä: 20. helmikuuta 2002 23:55
> Aihe: Re: [CQ-Contest] N2RM packetless M/2 details
> 
> 
> >
> >Congratulations, John, to you and the N2RM crew for showing 
> the way.  Let's
> >hope it sticks...............
> >
> >Vy 73
> >
> >Jim Neiger
> >N6TJ
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "John Golomb" <kz2s@hiway1.exit109.com>
> >To: <cq-contest@contesting.com>
> >Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2002 9:15 AM
> >Subject: [CQ-Contest] N2RM packetless M/2 details
> >
> >
> >>
> >> Why did we do it?
> >> -----------------
> >>
> >> I've wanted to do this for quite some time now.
> >>
> >> There has been quite a bit of discussion the past few 
> years about how
> >> multioperator contesting has been somewhat tarnished by 
> the introduction
> >> and evolution of the extensive packet/internet spotting 
> system.  The
> >> thrill of hunting down your own multipliers has been 
> replaced by how many
> >> clusters you can connect or telnet to over the weekend.  I 
> can remember a
> >> discussion that K3EST, N2AA, K3LR and myself had about 4-5 
> years ago after
> >> a MM effort at K3LR about how cool it would be if all the 
> MMs agreed to
> >> turn off packet for the weekend.  There was some follow up 
> discussion, but
> >> things kind of fizzled out.
> >>
> >> Then in November 2001, W4AN made the following post to CQ-Contest:
> >>
> >> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> >> From: Bill Fisher W4AN <w4an@contesting.com>
> >> Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 18:24:59 -0500 (EST)
> >>
> >> I've already got my sites set on ARRL CW.  A few of us 
> bound for OH in
> >> July are considering competing in the M/S category and not using
> >> packet.  K1DG ran the idea by me this week and the thought 
> of doing a
> >> multi-op without packet got me all excited about the contest!
> >>
> >> So, I'm wondering if it would not be fun for all of the 
> top multi-op
> >> stations to turn off the cluster for just one weekend?  
> After its over,
> >> lets see if you don't all have more fun.  I know I will.
> >>
> >> 73
> >>
> >> Bill Fisher, W4AN
> >> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>
> >> Renewed interest in multi-oping without packet!  N2NT and 
> I quickly agreed
> >> that our M/2 operation from N2RM for ARRL CW would be 
> packetless.  We also
> >> had several of the other serious M/2's to agree to do the 
> same.  About two
> >> weeks before the contest, I found out that our competition 
> had changed
> >> their mind, mostly due to some staffing issues - not 
> enough operators.  I
> >> still really wanted to operate without packet.  I polled 
> the rest of our
> >> crew and we all agreed that we would still carry through 
> with no packet
> >> and see what happened.  I was much more psyched about operating the
> >> contest knowing that we would have to work extra hard to keep our
> >> multiplier total up.  Our crew hopes that some other 
> multiops may take
> >> interest in operating this way after our effort.
> >>
> >> Some private correspondence I received from Greg, K8GL 
> probably best
> >> expresses why things are better without packet, "This gets 
> us back to
> >> operating and spotting as a team.  Good stuff! LONG OVER 
> DUE!"  W4AN put
> >> it somewhat less eloquently in his 3830 post "Packet stinks".
> >>
> >> What did we do?
> >> ---------------
> >>
> >> There are some capabilities that we have at N2RM that were 
> very important
> >> for our success this past weekend.  Probably the most 
> important is a short
> >> beverage that is several hundred feet away from the main 
> transmitting
> >> antennas.  We can effectively tune for mults on the same 
> band that we are
> >> running on with this RX antenna.
> >>
> >> We set up four rigs for this effort, two "main" stations and two
> >> "supplemental" stations.  The first supplemental station could be
> >> interlocked with either of the main stations and had 
> transmit antennas for
> >> 40-10 meters.  You could listen on either the transmit 
> antenna or on the
> >> short beverage.  The other supplemental rig was RX only 
> and used the short
> >> beverage.  We had four computers running CT and interfaced 
> them to a stand
> >> alone 386 computer running cluster software.  This allowed us to
> >> "internally spot" from the supplemental stations and load 
> up the ANNOUNCE
> >> window in CT.  We could still "point and shoot" for mults. 
>  There may be
> >> an easier way to implement this capability, but I wasn't 
> smart enough to
> >> figure it out before the contest.
> >>
> >> So we had some important new chairs in the contest.  The
> >> "spotting" chairs.  We pretty much had the third chair 
> active for almost
> >> the entire 48 hours.  The fourth chair was active when we had the
> >> operators available to staff them.
> >>
> >> Some observations and conclusions
> >> ---------------------------------
> >>
> >> First of all, our entire crew agrees that the contest was 
> much more fun
> >> without packet.  It is immensely more satisfying to "build your
> >> own" multiplier total during the contest.  It was also 
> refreshing to have
> >> to deal with so few packet pileups during the weekend.  
> Believe it or not,
> >> I think the actual number of packet pileups we ended up in over the
> >> weekend was probably in the single digits.
> >>
> >> This was the ARRL DX contest and is certainly not as 
> multiplier rich of a
> >> contest as CQWW.  The closest thing to M/2 in CQWW is probably
> >> multi-single. If we operated this way in CQWW as 
> multi-single, I'm not so
> >> sure we would be as successful in keeping up with the
> >> "packetized" stations.  We compared notes with K1AR on Saturday
> >> morning.  We were ahead in QSO's quite a bit, but way 
> behind in mults.  We
> >> figured that with the somewhat limited pool of mults in 
> ARRL DX, we would
> >> be able to catch up by the end of the contest.
> >>
> >> The somewhat unique capabilities we have at N2RM for same 
> band receiving
> >> were essential for our success.  Would it be fair to other 
> stations that
> >> didn't have this capability to compete against us in the
> >> (hypothetical) packetless multioperator categories?  I 
> don't know what the
> >> answer is.  Isn't this just part of building and improving your
> >> station?  If K1AR turned packet off this weekend, I doubt 
> they would have
> >> kept up with us in mults.  They don't have the same band receiving
> >> capability we have.  Look at W3LPL.  Frank has built a 
> crew of several
> >> people per band and can receive effectively while 
> transmitting.  Shouldn't
> >> he be rewarded for having this capability instead of 
> having it nullified
> >> by packet?
> >>
> >> Would we do it again?  Absolutely.  Although I'm not sure 
> how practical it
> >> would be to implement no packet at the Multi Multi level.  
> Seems like
> >> there are enough problems staffing the major MMs without 
> having to fill
> >> additional spotting chairs.  I'd love to see additional 
> interest for MS
> >> and M/2.
> >>
> >> Who else is interested in joining us operating and spotting as a
> >> team?  I'm telling you - multiop contesting is much more fun and
> >> satisfying without packet.  We'll be doing this again in 
> next year's ARRL
> >> DX CW.
> >>
> >> If I may quote N2AA after the contest, "This is one of the 
> coolest things
> >> I've done in my 40 years of contesting".
> >>
> >> 73,
> >>
> >> John N2NC
> >>
> >> For the 2002 N2RM ARRL CW team
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> CQ-Contest on WWW: http://lists.contesting.com/_cq-contest/
> >> Administrative requests: cq-contest-REQUEST@contesting.com
> >>
> >
> >
> >--
> >CQ-Contest on WWW: http://lists.contesting.com/_cq-contest/
> >Administrative requests: cq-contest-REQUEST@contesting.com
> >
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 

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