[CQ-Contest] Inspiration or ?

[k8cc]

I think Bill has made several good points in his note.

Its been my experience that there are two types of stations/owners who 
operate contests.  One type builds the biggest station he or she can afford 
with equipment optimized for contesting.  The second type buys a rig and 
some antennas and decides to contest with what he has.

I don't think pictures of large stations have inspired anyone to go out and 
build one.  Other big station owners might peruse the pictures for ideas, 
or perhaps a brave little gun might muster up his courage and call the big 
station owner and ask to guest op or try to get on a multi-op 
team.  Otherwise, I think the little gun will throw up his hands in despair!

Reverse-inspiration can also be induced by geography.  Holding up NT1N or 
KT3Y for their accomplishments is a fine thing, but those feats cannot be 
duplicated by anyone off of the East Coast, and the realization that your 
locale is working against you brings more discouragement.

I don't think any reasonable little gun is going to be encouraged by the 
rah-rah of a few big guns touting their results on occasion.  If you want 
to encourage little guns, more attention needs to be paid to contests where 
they can compete - contests like SS, NAQP, state QSO parties, etc.

The other way to encourage little guns is by inclusion, and this is best 
done by local or regional contest clubs bringing these ops into their ranks.

Station descriptions do have their place.  I initially got started in ham 
radio by reading the column by Herb Brier (W9???) in Popular Electronics 
magazine which people would send in station descriptions and what they were 
working.  For the most part, these were Novices but the romanticism and 
adventure of what they were doing was what got me hooked.

73,


Dave/K8CC


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