[CQ-Contest] ARRL contest coverage

[Jeff Stai WK6I]

At 01:39 PM 1/9/02, Wilson, Mark  K1RO wrote:
>Now we've reached the point that we need to look at two areas that have
>traditionally been near and dear to our hearts -- contest rules/results and
>section news. Between them, they consume 20% of the available editorial
>space in QST. Both of these QST features have a small but devoted following.
>Both are important to ARRL and have long traditions, going back to the early
>days of amateur radio. But they appeal to a limited number of readers. And
>even the readers who are interested only look at small parts of Section News
>or at a few of the contest line scores. Putting it in QST is an inefficient
>use of pages that could be used for something with broader appeal and make
>QST a better journal for the average reader.
>

hi Mark - I appreciate you taking the time to explain your position in 
detail. But I would like to make a point about who reads contest results.

It's not about ads and radios, it's about people and friends. And it's about 
something that I don't think would ever show up in a survey.

On several occasions I have had other hams mention that they have seen me in 
the contest results. Often it is someone on the local repeater who never 
even participates in a contest - but they looked at the results, noticed a 
familiar call, and were kind enough to say something nice to me about it. 
And then maybe I can mention how I made an improvement to my station that 
helped me do well.

Now, this may not be the most important thing in the world, but these kinds 
of things are a sort of 'glue' that can bring us together. (By the way, 
about the ONLY on-air discussion I ever hear related to QST magazine content 
is contest results, and usually among non-contesters!)

I fear that if you take those results away from the ham population in 
general, a little bit of the heart of ham radio may be lost - because if the 
results are only on the web, only contesters will look at them. 

thanks for listening - 73 - jeff wk6i

ps: OK, one more thing. I had written books, written industry standards, 
received patents... and I -still- got a big thrill when that magazine came 
to my door and I saw my first contest score in the results listing. Go 
figure...


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