[CQ-Contest] WPX Rumination

[Pete Smith]

At 10:31 PM 6/1/1999 -0000, Barry Kutner wrote:

...
>Isn't that one of the problems? Most contesters ARE old codgers. 
>Guy, were you at the Contest Banquest at Dayton? K1AR asked 
>for a show of hands of those in the room less than 25 years old. 
>Out of 300 or so, there were 2! We're not going to encourage 
>younger hams to contest if the contests are during traditional 
>family-oriented holiday weekends. 


Amen!  I'm fortunate enough to have my kids and their families relatively
nearby, and so I still have the problem.  We all know it has to be worse
for young families.  The best way to keep contesting alive and well is to
make it more attractive to people in their 20s and 30s, so that the ones
who start as teenagers don't drop out, and the young and enthusiastic will
be encouraged to give it a try.

The usual response from defenders of the status quo is that there's a
contest every weekend, so there's no place to move to.  A modest proposal
--why doesn't CQ scan the calendar for weekends that would work better -
even a 1-week change would fix the problem -- and then negotiate date swaps
with the sponsor of the contests that would otherwise be conflicting?

73,  Pete N4ZR
Sometimes a tower is just a tower


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