[CQ-Contest] Who says c'mon first, chicken or egg?

[Richard Thorne]

Jim:

I have to agree with you on this one.

When I was in Raleigh in the late 80's I operated from an apartment with wires.
Then one day I received a call from Will, AA4NC, asking if I would be interested
in doing a multi for the 1988 Nov SS ssb.  Not sure exactly why Will called but
I think (correct me if I'm wrong Will) it was due to results(and the #'s were
not too high) and operating.

Anyways I took him up on his offer to operate Sunday, if I remember correctly.
We ended up winning NC Multi and we were a division leader.  That was the first
contest certificate I ever received and really fueled the contest fire for me.

Thanks Will.

Then it was off to start operating from Roger's (N4ZC) place for a few years for
CQWW ssb in the early 90's.  I liked his call so much I changed mine from WB5M
to N5ZC.

I would be remiss if I did not mention Richard, K5NA.  He was my first contest
elmer.  He had myself, NA2N and Rus, K2UA over to his house in NY for the
Armadillo run.  Richard's station was the control station for the Armadillo run
as the rover stations tried to hit all of the Texas counties.  That was in the
early 80's.

It was fun to hook up with Richard again at his new station in Austin during
last months IARU.

Jim White wrote:

> In my contesting youth, it was understood that you had to make your bones
> operating from home and show that you could among other things keep your
> buttocks in the chair for the whole contest.  After showing repeated
> improvement in your activities (and beating out some of the other locals in
> a pile up or two leaving them wondering who the heck is that guy) THEN you
> might have been approached regarding operating from a multi-op.
>
> This invitation was one you earned by demonstrating you were indeed
> interested in a demanding endeavor - contesting.  You were invited because
> it was felt you had the ability to add something to an operation...and once
> again you had to make your bones.
>
> You started out at the multis as low man on the totem pole - you were the
> guy on 10 meters at the bottom of the cycle or the one on what was probably
> a dead band...making sure that a freak opening did not happen and the TEAM
> you now were a part of didn't miss it...probably didn't happen but you were
> there to make sure it was not missed - while not running 150 an hour it was
> a contribution to the effort!  Now you could watch and learn...you were like
> a sponge absorbing everything you saw, be it software techniques like
> hitting the plus key to both log and send tnx, or when a long path opening
> on 20 might occur...you were now in "the fast lane".
>
> The best way to get to the point where the ability to gain operating
> expertise sufficient to earn you an invite was to join the local contest
> club, by now you knew of their existence because you were familiar with the
> calls of most of its members and had seen them as high scorers in club
> competitions...so, you took the next logical step and you joined the contest
> club where members understood why you would want to spend an entire weekend
> in front of the rig.
>
> Now you had the ability to pick the brains of sages at club meetings, to
> "walk up the hill" and ask those questions which had troubled you - be they
> "how long should I call CQ before giving up on a band?"..."should I be
> running or S&Ping?"..."how fast should I call CQ at?"...
>
> New guys are welcome in the contesting fraternity, contesters are a
> possessed breed, with a major MAJOR focus on their operating - they have
> made major commitments in terms of both time and money in order to contest
> effectively. Having more contesters in the fold means longevity of the part
> of the hobby that they enjoy most (plus another QSO in SS) - since you might
> be a newbie and have found the contest-reflector (they didn't have this when
> I was in your shoes) - welcome aboard!
>
> If you are a newbie contester in Florida and are looking to get into
> contesting I know that the membership of
>
> The Florida Contest Group
>
> will welcome you with open arms...if want to find out more - check out the
> cool club website listed below!
>
> 73 (it is NOT 73s, it is already plural!)
>
> Jim, K4OJ
> Tampa, FL
> k4oj at tampabay.rr.com
>
> Proud member of the Florida Contest Group, check out our website at:
>
> http://www.qsl.net/fcg
>
> or
>
> http://www.fcg.club
>
> if your browser doesn't support the new domain names yet!
>
> --
> CQ-Contest on WWW: http://lists.contesting.com/_cq-contest/
> Administrative requests: cq-contest-REQUEST at contesting.com

--
73,
Richard Thorne
Amarillo, TX
Amateur Radio Station - N5ZC (Ex. KA2DSY, N2BHP, WB5M)
Remote Control Planes - AMA # N5ZC
Web Page: http://www.tcac.net/~rthorne/index.html


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