CQing Zzzzzzzzzz

[paul at paccomm.com]

Hi. I really don't understand what all the nonsense about CQing is
all about. The discussion about the 5 minute rule doubtless brought
some good input/output into the reflector, although you'll note
that there was _far_ more input from those trying not to have it
happen.

CQing IS contesting! If no-body CQed there wouldn't be anybody on the
band. I quite agree that the reflector is getting very self-centred
about US contesting. Let's try to put this in perspective.
The achievable run rates here in the USA are NOTHING compared to what
can be achieved by DX and especially Europe.
I have now "done" several major contests here in the USA and (for me)
they are a mere shadow of what contesting is from Europe or
the Caribbean (I have operated from both areas).
At GW8GT we were ashamed if our top two or three ops. couldn't get
up to AND HOLD FOR HOURS AT A TIME rates of 185-190 on CW and
350-370 on SSB. I have seen no indication whatsoever (despite having
a ten times better antenna system here in the US) that this is remotely
achieveable over here!
What am I getting at? Simply because calling CQ CQ CQ in the USA IS
VERY VERY boring (here in FL a "good" hour is anything over 80 !!!!!)
you shouldn't break into huge volumes of kilobytes of proposed changes
to rules which will affect the quality of the contest for 99% of the
rest of the world!!!!!!!!
Contests in the US are a 48 hour multiplier hunt and of a totally
different nature to that for others. Please don't ruin contesting
by introducing such silly ideas as being forced to QSY all the time.
It's OK to have it in "novelty" contests, but not the likes of
ARRL DX, CQ-WW, CW-WPX......
Regards, Paul.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Paul Evans, W4/G4BKI   paul at paccomm.com 
+(813) 874-2980        Fax:+(813) 872-8696     BBS: +(813) 874-3078 (V.34)
The views expressed in this message are not necessarily those of PacComm.
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