[CQ-Contest] Re: WRTC & PED

[Doug Smith W9WI]

> From: Bill Fisher W4AN <w4an at contesting.com>
> 
> Attention contesting court of popular opinion!
> 
> If you were rating a contester (like we are doing for the WRTC selection
> process), would the dayton pile up competition or results from a PED-type
> competition figure in your opinion?

Since I guess I have some credibility on this issue<g>...

I would agree with Ward.  The skills necessary to do well in the pileup
contest - ability to copy instinctively in distracting conditions, ability
to pull calls out of QRM (in a real contest, more likely QRM from
adjacent-channel CQers rather than from a pileup, but still a similar
skill), familiarity with what calls are "reasonable" and what aren't - are
helpful to successful CW contesting but not by any means the only skills
necessary.  You need a good station.  You need stamina and motivation. 
(these are probably the most important skills for successful contesting) You
need to be a good typist.  (a skill whose value is underestimated..) You
need to know where propagation is going.  A bit of psychology won't hurt.

In fact, you will find little correlation between my contest scores and my
pileup contest scores.  Part of it is the station; quite honestly my station
is not my #1 life priority (or even my #1 recreational priority).  Part of
it is motivation; I find it VERY difficult to stay in the chair for anything
longer than NAQP.  
=======================================================
Should a pileup tape be part of WRTC?  I guess that depends on what we think
WRTC is.  Is it the World Cup of amateur radio, or the Olympics?  A single
event, which should be scored in a single way, or a number of events held at
a common place and time?  Good arguments can be made for both.  If we feel
it's a single event, then I suppose the only thing that should count is
one's team's performance in the IARU test itself.

(I do suppose if WRTC is the Olympics of amateur radio, shouldn't there be a
place for demonstrating VHF/UHF skills, and maybe for homebrewing?  Actually
such events probably *would* add something to the WRTC..)
-- 
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com


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