[CQ-Contest] Cheating was: Young People

[Pete Smith]

I was sorry to read Cedrick's message because I see him as one of the
bright-eyed young contesters we so desperately need.  I hope he'll
reconsider getting turned off about contesting.  But I also need to
register my disagreement about cheating --I think the cheaters are a
distinct minority.

One thing that people always cite is the huge disparity in signal strengths
between stations heard on the air during contests.  I'm sure we all have
had the experience of hearing a DX station 30 dB over S9, and right next to
him is another station in the same general geographic area who is S0
(that's a zero, folks) though still readable.  And it seems fairly likely
that there are still more who you can't even hear.  It's tempting to
believe that station no. 1 must be running one of "those" amplifiers.  But
I believe that transmitter power isn't even close to being the biggest
contributor to such differences.

For example, the difference between 100 watts and 1 KW is 10 dB at the
feedpoint.  Sure, 10 kw would be another 10 dB.  But the difference between
an excellent antenna in a superb location and an inferior antenna in a
lousy location could easily be 20-25 dB ON EACH END of the path.  Then
consider the added effect of takeoff/arrival angles vs antenna patterns --
perhaps another 10-20 dB on each end, from peak to null.

Is nobody cheating?  Of course not.  But are the top people doing it?  Not
that I've seen.  And if someone is cheating, who loses in the end, when he
gets found out?



73, Pete Smith N4ZR

Contesting is ... Extreme Radio

The World Contest Station Database 
is back up and running at
http://www.qsl.net/n4zr 



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