[CQ-Contest] To the "Best of the Best" - a query (long)

[Randy Thompson, K5ZD]

Fighting words!  This is about as stupid as saying that people who fish in a
lake are better than people who fish in the ocean.

I used to be naive and believe that contesting from W1 was easy.  I moved to
New England from Texas after winning SS CW 4 times in a row and some decent
CQWW finishes.  I thought I was good and that I would show those W1's how
much better I was due to my experience of operating from a less fortunate
location.  My first DX contest was one of the most humbling experiences I
have ever had.  I got killed.

It took me more than 5 years just to learn how to operate a DX contest from
up here.  I am still learning.  There is a lot more to contesting than just
the mechanics of making QSOs.

One thing I have learned is that great contest ops are everywhere.  The best
ones adapt to the conditions they are given and do the best they can with
what they have.  The live for the competition.  The really good ones
recognize that there are differences in geography and station, but that
skill and talent are easily recognized, and acknowledged among peers.

Oh, my station is available for CQWW Phone if one of you West Coast types
wants to back Leigh up.

K5ZD






> -----Original Message-----
> From:  Leigh S. Jones
<snip>
>
> I don't know why the Western half of the US ranks so highly -- I
> simply have to say that as a well practiced DX contester I've listened
> to the Northeastern contesters who have the high scores for years and
> there isn't one of them that has been forced to work as hard at
> contesting as the group I listed above.  In fact, I believe that
> perhaps the truth is that the whole East Coast of the US, and the
> entire continent of Europe, is so spoiled by the high signal levels
> between their respective locations, and the high run rates that they
> can make due to gigantic populations of signals to be worked that they
> have never quite learned to do the hard work of DXing.  They're a
> little like the machine gunners of World War I -- spitting out a lot
> of bullets and shooting everyone down but not necessarily developing
> the skills of good soldiers.
>


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