[CQ-Contest] SO2R

[Mitchell, Tim T.K.]

There is so much I would like to say on this topic but I will attempt to
limit it so that the main points come across...

- I don't believe in more watered down categories.
  IMHO we already have too many in several tests.
- It IS possible to do SO2R from a city lot with one tower
  Station design, it's about station design!  Use the thing between ur ears.
- It IS possible to do SO2R with a limited budget
  borrow a radio, put up a multiband vertical or dipole or something.  be
creative, experiment.
- I would hope that anyone of any age could learn to do it
  (If not shoot me now, I just turned 35 and if my brain won't form new
paths, I don't
   want to live any longer)  Also, if I can't expand my contest ability
anymore, I will leave
   contesting... and probably radio all together.  Since most of my fellow
wrtc'ers are older
   than me, I hope that I still have a few years of getting better (hi)!
- People who first try SO2R will likely see a score decrease.
  It is a skill.  Should we put a speed limit on cw/ssb contests (ie
cw<30wpm or ssb < 50wpm)
  NOT!  It is not simply a function of $$.
- *** Most of the comments I see that SO2R should be a separate category
come from people
      who are lucky enough (maybe this is age discrimination since it is
mainly older guys)
      to live in an area where the rate is high enough that they can do SO1R
and make the
      box.  From OH it just isn't possible/likely.  That is why I learned to
do it.  N2IC
      found out how miserable a WW contest was from MI (even at K8CC
station) last weekend.
      If I had $1 for every time I heard about how good it sounds at KC1XX
or W3LPL,
      I could retire to the east coast! (maybe some day I will get invited
out that way and
      I can be ruined from ever operating from W8 again?).
  ***

Like Tree, I don't think there will be a category created to tackle this
subject.  Given the descriptions passed about, I was already planning mods
to software to make one radio act like two (using the sub-receiver, etc).  I
don't do QRO because I am too cheap to buy an 87A or two (Sorry W0UN).  I
would like them but just can't bring myself to part with the $$.  Basically
I don't think QRO will help me do any better than I already do (in SS).

What good does it do to list # band changes?  If I am in SS and in AZ during
the day, I probably don't change bands very much.  If in the same situation
from OH to begin to keep up, I have to change bands and hope for some short
skip.  Giving band changes just says how competitors try and compensate for
natural things and perhaps what that op does best.  Same with sprint from
out west they hang on to 20m as long as possible from OH it just doesn't
work that way we have to work some guys on 40m short skip and the 20m guys
during the 1st hour.  What does # band changes prove?  Maybe I am missing
something?

The bull about overcrowding on the bands and qrm created by so2r don't make
any sense to me.  Just because there are not 100+ guys an hour calling me on
15m doesn't mean it isn't productive for me to ping-pong cq there.  Maybe I
am looking for KL7/KH6 while running my real rate on 40m (assuming stateside
contest).  I wish there were 100's of HF active hams in kh6/kl7 or even the
west coast to call me but there just aren't.  So is my cq on 15m
unproductive?  If it were, I wouldn't be doing it!  Besides who am I qrm'ing
if the band sounds dead?

The thing I like best about SO2R is that I continually make myself and my
station better.  I haven't mastered it, that is why it is still fun.  There
is more to a contest than operating.  Station building is just as much fun
to me.  The combination of station building and operating ones own station
is a great feeling!  Why take this away?

I would like to state a simple fact: It is a contest and not everyone can
win.  I think people can find there own ways of winning based on the printed
results but ultimately there can (and should be) only one winner.  If we
part from that, what is the satisfaction in winning or making the box?

Things aren't broke, don't fix them (unless you want to get rid of SOA and
make it multi-op, get rid of TS in WPX, etc.)  (K3MM's XA's will always beat
my XA in WPX [given equal ops] because of this thing called geography, it
isn't fair but we deal with it!)  Basically life isn't fair, someone will
always build a better mouse-trap, live in a better location, etc.  Let's
move on and let people do the best with what they have and see who comes out
on top.

73 Tim K9TM


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>From Ron Wetjen <wd4ahz at arrl.net>  Fri Jun  2 13:46:36 2000
From: Ron Wetjen <wd4ahz at arrl.net> (Ron Wetjen)
Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2000 12:46:36 +0000
Subject: [CQ-Contest] SO2R a separate category?
References: <20000601.191127.-4108821.6.K6LL at juno.com>
Message-ID: <3937ACAC.9A770B31 at gte.net>


k6ll at juno.com wrote:

> I just remembered what seemed to be a very reasonable compromise
> proposed by someone, I think it was N5KO, the last time the
> subject was kicked around. The proposal was to leave SO2R in the
> single-op category, but to include the number of band changes in
> the line score. The number of band changes could be easily 
> calculated by the scoring software. Just a few lines of code, 
> right, Tree?

Even easier, is just putting a little * after the calls of the
SO2R entrants.  That'll let the * and the *-less know how they
stack up with each other, without having to create a new 
category.

(Maybe adding this information to the scores listed on 
3830 could be a start?  Just to see how it works out.)  

I don't understand why that's so difficult to do, especially
since this same topic comes up year after year, and nothing
is done to address it.

73, Ron

-- 
One of the W1AW/4 Crew - IARU/WRTC-2000  July 8-9, 2000

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Florida QSO Party - http://www.qsl.net/fqp


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