Summary: where exactly is the band edge?

[BK1ZX70SFL at aol.com]

KR2J, et al

Heah you guys just like that feeling that "I own the band and I am in pole
position" feeling........admit it (I do!).  Good.

If you choose to waste a lot of your time in a contest battling for the right
to hold that pole position (while your competition passes you on the outside)
then you have taken it too far...others will try and weasle into your lane,
they may say they are just getting close which is a necessity on band crowded
contest weekends....but maybe their goal of the pole is higher than your goal
of making QSOs (this is their loss by error in judgement, their parents
probaly bought them HTs when they were little). 

See the recent K5ZD summary of his participation in CQWW Phone, and the
 excellent example of to fight or not to fight viewed in retrospect therein.

I love being loud, and am not ashamed whenI am louder than others, actually
when I have found I have achieved this (within the license!) I am very
pleased to display this ability in competitive events....sometimes holding
14026/7026 (I don't do "the phone" much).....being loud enables you to do
this thing - and it does bring a psychological reward.  

A positive attitude is an absolute neccessity for winning contesting,
something like knowing you are loud enough to hold a prime frequency when you
want it is a mainline injection of adrenaline going straight to that
confidence circuit....phrases like "yessssssssssss, a second VE8 called me!"
and "40 rules" come to mind.

If you get there by leaving your sweat on a tower you need not fret about
being loud.  You earned it!  That is just one facet of successful contesting
(a positive spin off of a loud station - nice to have available when
emergencies spring up...or, how about a weak guy with 20 year old RG8 and a
15 year old tribander at 30 feet??? NOT).

When coupled with operator ability loud is awesome - I emphasize ability,
because just being loud don't cut it - many of us have worked through/around
loud guys who hoped we would QSY, we didn't because we were better operators
than the frequency pirates!

"Loud is good".....didn't N2AA say that?

k4oj

the ham formerly known as K1ZX