[CQ-Contest] Its about time he gets mentioned, thanks Ken!

[Jim White]

I have been going nuts, yeah yeah we know all of those guys.

What about the guy who had 40 zones on 20 meters as a single op in WW, what
about the guy who won SS CW from the states, or has won ARRL DX Low
Power...and oh yeah, he is twice a WRTC co-champion...it is VERY apparent
none of you guys have ever operated with K1TO.

I ran a small multi-multi several years back and Dan was on 15 humming away
at over 150/hr into EU - at the same time he was sending the other operators
gab messages asking them to be sure that the callsign of that JA QSO was
JA1ABC (and not JA1ADC)...talk about focus!

Dan is perhaps one of the best CW operators in the world, and on top of that
he is a first rate individual...I consider myself lucky to have had him as a
friend for over 25 years, even though he has been kicking my butt the whole
time! Always seemingly with smaller antennas lower power rigs and he just
plain out-operates me!

Have you ever heard anyone pissed off at Dan?  A lot of the previously
mentioned individuals whilst contest winners have dubious social skills -
this is NOT Dan who will gladly squeeze you into his tight schedule if you
are a fellow ham in need of a favor.

Dan is an operator - hi is not an envelope pusher finding loop holes in the
rules for advantage - he simply milks the bands with the second rig while
running triple digit on another.  When he moved here he started kicking our
butts in FL before he even had his station up and running...and you know
what, I do not mind having him beat me because he is a class act...soft
spoken, and more than talk - he delivers...take a look at the records, dudes
and dudettes.

And all of this just so he MIGHT let me slide next to his frequency on the
low end :-)

I wish Dan all the best next Summer in OH as he and N5TJ go for the
three-peat, I cannot imagine contesting having a better face than K1TO's
[alright, mebbe TJ is the cuter one :-) ]

K4OJ


--
CQ-Contest on WWW: http://lists.contesting.com/_cq-contest/
Administrative requests: cq-contest-REQUEST at contesting.com


>From Leigh S. Jones" <kr6x at kr6x.com  Thu Aug  9 05:24:58 2001
From: Leigh S. Jones" <kr6x at kr6x.com (Leigh S. Jones)
Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2001 21:24:58 -0700
Subject: [CQ-Contest] How did these guys get to be so good?
References: <4.3.2.7.2.20010808135612.00c639b0 at imap.arches.uga.edu> <20010808121310.A7900 at loja.kkn.net>
Message-ID: <057401c1208b$4035dfa0$ede3c23f at kr6x.org>


Truthfully, I think one of the more intriguing questions is how will a
new operator joining the amateur ranks these days ever get as good as
these guys.

There will be many new contesters in the present day who have no
interest in CW beyond the 5 WPM milestone and will do their contesting
exclusively on phone.  We all will appreciate their entry into the
sport because contesting is ruled by the adage "the more the merrier".
No one prefers the Sunday afternoon low rates of a contest that would
be better with more participation, and we'd all endure significant
levels of interference in order to assure more fresh contacts in the
final hours of the event.  However, much of what makes good
contesting, even on phone, is more easily learned from the
mathematical precision that is expressed by counting up the bauds of
dits and dahs.  It is possible to become a great phone contester
without learning to do contesting on both phone and CW, but if you
operate both modes, then you will have double the practice available
to you throughout the contest year and will advance faster in your
skills.

Assume for a moment that for many operators, this simply will not be.
There will be many such no-code operators entering the field of play
over the next few decades.  Operating only on phone they must now be
very certain to participate in virtually every major contest that is
sponsored for the mode.  Otherwise, they will be enduring a learning
deficit vs. contesters who use both modes.  Like new hams of the past,
these guys will be hampered by ineffective antennas and otherwise low
effective radiated power, but they will have to do that sufferring
under the immense weight of higher levels of interference and without
CW to fall back on to gain that extra, shall we say, "talk power" that
only CW can give.

On phone, the burden of a less effective signal is much greater than
on CW due to the high interference levels.  So that first uphill climb
to some minor state of success will be difficult for the new phone
contester to overcome by comparison to the same obstacle that CW-only
and balanced mode contesters have overcome.  Until that satisfaction
level is reached, contesters are just ham's with a few QSOs in a
contest.

As we begin this new era in contesting, those of us who are
experienced and successful should be considering what we need to do to
assure that contesting won't simply be rejected by the new no-code
hams simply because it's too hard (i.e., "I hate contests.") in
proportions never before experienced.


--
CQ-Contest on WWW: http://lists.contesting.com/_cq-contest/
Administrative requests: cq-contest-REQUEST at contesting.com