[CQ-Contest] but are YOU really

[Zack Widup]

On Tue, 6 Aug 2002, Jim White wrote:

> There was a barrage of comments related to CW being outclassed by PSK31 
> including the following which was typical of them:
> 
> 
> "Digipan allows you to copy 2 PSK31 signals at once.  W1SQLPSK allows you
> to copy up to 20 (yes, twenty!) PSK31 signals at once."
> 
> 
> I believe the problem, which you will in turn say is semantics, that a 
> lot of us have is that we feel statements like the above are just plain 
> wrong.
> 
> Why?
> 
> 
> Because the OPERATOR is NOT COPYING the signals ... a machine is.
> 

The operator still has to read the signal on the screen. The operator
still has to reply with his answers. To me, the operator is still copying
the signals - he's using his eyes instead of his ears.  Why is that
different than SSB, CW or anything else?  It is not totally a
machine-to-machine QSO, the operator is still involved.  It's the
operator's ideas and thoughts that are being exchanged, not the machine's
(if machines can even have ideas and thoughts - read "Godel, Escher, Back
- an Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas R. Hofstadter.)

> 
> If this is indeed the direction we are headed I guess things like 
> contesting and WRTC are history - after all it will be which engineer 
> has access to the best components and can design the best boards for 
> their "decoders"
> 
> 
> This is also the reason why a lot of us do not even both investigating 
> PSK31 - it isn't operating ... I also feel the same way about RTTY. If I 
> am not having to use my brain to decipher sounds and turn them into 
> contest exchanges, etc. it is not operating (to me) .
> 
> 
> What is the sizzle, what is the romance, why bother?
> 

Some of us think that new things are adventures.  I still vividly recall
my first QSO's on 160, 30, 17, 12 meters; 222, 432, 1296, 2304, 3456 etc.
MHz.  And my first QSO's with RTTY, PSK31, MFSK16, etc.  They were ALL 
adventures!

> 
> Data exchange is not operating, IMHO. That's what the internet is for!
> 

My opinion is that data exchange is data exchange - whether you exchange
the data via spoken word, Morse code, written or typed message or
telepathy - it's still data exchange.  RADIO is the medium - a signal sent
from an electronic transmitter to an antenna and then relayed via free
space, ionosphere, troposphere, EME or whatever, and then received at
another antenna and detected by an electronic receiver.  If it's done that
way, it's radio regardless of the mode of communication used.  I myself am
interested in all the modes available.  But I should note that CW is still
my favorite and occupies 90% or more of my operating time.

> 
> 73, am not trying to start a fire just stating my opinion - granted it 
> is from someone who feels older than N6TJ.
> 
> 73,
> 
> Jim, K4OJ
> 

OK - I guess we just have different opinions.  I'll still work you on CW.
:-)

73, Zack W9SZ