[CQ-Contest] Quick Poll

[Jim White, K4OJ]

W4EF de K4OJ

Elmer! How are you!  Hope things are going well for you on the West coast.

My gripe is that the ARRL is almost covertly approaching this, and then
after the fact saying oh but of course we have much more planned for you
contest guys!

some directors have said that instead of page space for line scores they
will use that space for articles about operating - I just plain do not
believe them - especially since they say their motivation is cutting cost
which means cutting page count which means the pages where these proposed
article on operating would go do not exist!

I am for expanded web coverage of contests - of course - most active
contesters are number related guys who like more than a line score but all
kinds of breakdowns to look at to better understand their weaknesses versus
the competition...it wouldn't make sense to re-vamp your 15 meter antennas
if you had as more 15 meter QSOs than anyone else but were weaker on 20, but
this is for the hardcore contester.

Where does the hardcore contester come from?  He comes from the guy who
makes a couple of QSOs in his first contest and then sees his callsign - HIS
VERY OWN CALLSIGN - IN PRINT IN A NATIONAL MAGAZINE.  He then improves his
skills and watches that callsign rise in his section listing...he sees who
else is interested in contesting in his section each time he checks the
results and he befriends like minded hams...voila he is now expanding his
knowledge and is getting to the point where he has something to sell -
probably not by virtue of his score but by showing his ability to keep his
butt in a chair as a competitor, he has made a commitment....

The new competitor gets invited to the multi-op where he has been invited by
virtue of the station owner seeing his scores rise in the ranks of the
section - he is rewarded for it.  He know rubs elbows with contest elmers
and learns how to better increase his operating skills, he learns about the
gray line...he learns about long path...he learns how to maximize
communications ability by knowing the bands are open to any point on the
globe at a certain time - it is not just fat bank accounts and having a big
antenna that nets big QSO numbers - it is KNOWLEDGE!

This will cease happening if the new guy doesn't have a "face" - contesting
is not, NOT



NOT



just for the bug guns...this is an ugly perception made by non-contesters
and one which will only be enhanced by the presence of top ten boxes and
winners only.

The ARRL is a membership organization and like most, your average guy is
pretty much so a nobody - but, through operating he has had a chance to be
somebody when he turned his log into the ARRL...now, if this goes through -
why should he bother?

I don't know about you now that you are on the West Coast but it sure seems
to me that the amount of European contest activity is up - the winning
scores in contests are up - and it is not just the cycle...when you can
spend hours of back to back over 100 QSO/hour rates just working Europeans I
question if contesting is a decreasing activity - on the contrary it seems!

There is a warm feeling associated with operating, you share something with
another human being - sometimes he is on the other side of the gray line and
one day you meet him at Dayton and even though you have never met face to
face you spend hours talking and he is a friend...this is the comradery I
know and enjoy amongst contesters!

Perception is reality - by the way has anyone on CQ-Contest been surveyed
regarding QST contest - looking pretty slow, Mark?

I strongly urge the Board of Directors to out and out take a stand - are you
for encouraging contesters or are we just a means to an end for you to sell
advertising and have you forgotten that the second R in ARRL was for Relay
as in message handling  as in something operators do.

Don't forget the roots of the hobby - and don't disguise your actions as
solely keeping touch with the times...there are still a lot of hams who
enjoy operating.

73,

Jim White, K4OJ

cc: ARRL BOD and HQ staff



----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike" <W4EF at dellroy.com>
To: "Jim White, K4OJ" <k4oj at tampabay.rr.com>; <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Cc: <fcg at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2002 6:56 PM
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Quick Poll


> I hate to be a kurmudgeon, Jim, but if the League has to chose
> between spending money on Washington lobbyist or printing
> our scores in QST versus the web, I would rather have them
> concentrate on what we really need them for - defending our
> frequencies from competing interests in front of FCC, Congress,
> and ITU. Pretty hard to contest if you don't have any bands
> to operate on.
>
> Heck I usually have already studied the contest results on the
> members only website a month before the hardcopy arrives
> in the mail anyway. The main thing is that ARRL continues to
> support the contest desk (N1ND, et al) with the funding to do
> log checking and publish the results and that the electronic
> results are available to members at no additional charge (e.g.
> you don't have to be an NCJ subscriber). I think they may
> already do this, but results could be made available to
> non-members after one or two months so as not to
> discourage non-members who normally pick up the results at
> the newstand from participating.
>
> If ARRL can save some bucks by using a cheaper medium (e.g.
> world wide web) to deliver the results, then that just more money
> that they can take to Washington to compete with telecom giants
> and the Homeowners Association of America, etc. If the money
> saved is funnelled back into the contest desk, Dan can spend more
> time doing detailed breakdown analysis off results instead of buying
> stamps and paper. I think the painfully short writeups we have now
> are driven by the limited page space allocated in QST. The web
> doesn't really have this limitation. This would allow us to get back
> to the days of long writeups with lots of pictures.
>
> Mike, W4EF (aka Elmer Fudd)...............................
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jim White, K4OJ" <k4oj at tampabay.rr.com>
> To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
> Cc: <fcg at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2002 12:56 AM
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] Quick Poll
>
>
> >
> > TO THE READERSHIP OF CQ-CONTEST...A REQUEST FROM A MEMBER OF THE LEAGUE
> FOR
> > OVER 30 YEARS....
> >
> > Here is an excerpt from K1RO's post to AB0MV copied to the CQ-Contest
> > reflector...
> >
> > "We conduct comprehensive, professional QST reader surveys approximately
> > every three years, using Readex, Inc., a firm that specializes in
magazine
> > readership research. The surveys are conducted using industry standard
> > techniques and mailed to a random sample of ARRL members. We have a high
> > degree of confidence in the results."
> >
> >
> >
> > MY REQUEST:
> >
> > IMPORTANT:
> >
> > ONLY IF YOU HAVE BEEN APPROACHED
> >
> > (NO I HAVE NEVER BEEN POLLED OR EVEN HEARD OF READEX, ETC RESPONSES
PLEASE
> > PLEASE PLEASE)
> >
> > Please respond to K1RO at the ARRL if you have ever been polled by
Readex,
> > Inc.
> >
> > His e-mail is
> >
> > mwilson at arrl.org
> >
> > AND
> >
> > ONLY IF YOU HAVE BEEN POLLED, PLEASE CC THE CQ-CONTEST REFLECTOR....I
have
> > not and wonder how many active contesters have.
> >
> > ...Mark let us know how much mail you get from the "burden"-some
> contesting
> > community, won't you?
> >
> >
> > Jim White, K4OJ
> > ARRL LM and former ARRL employee who had to deal with those burdensome
> > contesters in the seventies...
> >
> >
> > --
> > CQ-Contest on WWW: http://lists.contesting.com/_cq-contest/
> > Administrative requests: cq-contest-REQUEST at contesting.com
> >
> >
>
>
>
>


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CQ-Contest on WWW: http://lists.contesting.com/_cq-contest/
Administrative requests: cq-contest-REQUEST at contesting.com


>From K0HB H. Brakob" <HHBrakob at msn.com  Fri Jan 11 05:03:01 2002
From: K0HB H. Brakob" <HHBrakob at msn.com (K0HB H. Brakob)
Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 05:03:01 -0000
Subject: [ DAKOTA-HAM ] Fw: [CQ-Contest] US/VE Hams: QST - Do we have a say in it?
References: <33.2092feb7.296e792b at aol.com> <006f01c199f2$c7f5e1c0$dc351fcc at bigguy> <a05100303b863b1a983be@[192.168.0.104]>
Message-ID: <00d501c19a5d$41b4f9a0$b4341fcc at bigguy>


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lee Blaske" <lblaske at pclink.com>

> 
> If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? If contest 
> results (or DXCC results) aren't published in a paper magazine, is it 
> as if the contest (or DX competition) never happened?
> 
> Even if this material wasn't published in the magazine, it could 
> still be "published" in the CD ROM archives of QST, couldn't it? A 
> computer version would also be searchable. Also, there isn't anything 
> preventing someone from printing out this material if they want a 
> hard copy.
> 

Good point, Lee, but the wrong point in my opinion.  

Yesterday, in response to some of this traffic, Dave Sumner
sent me a nice message in which he explained some of the
rationale behind these proposed changes.  Dave is an articulate
guy and I have a great deal of respect for him -- in my opinion, he
one of best things to ever happen to ARRL.

In his message he makes this point.

  "We can say with pride that the ARRL is in the forefront 
   among national membership associations in making 
   effective use of the Internet. Our commitment of resources 
   has kept pace with its growing importance."

He's absolutely right.  Have you visited the ARRL website?
It is GREAT!  The news there is way ahead of QST; it is
attractively presented; there seems to be almost no end
to the kind of amateur-related material that can be 
accessed from there; and 98% of it is absolutely free
for the asking -- no membership required.  Why even
subscribe?

Hold that last thought!  There will be a quiz.

Now I'm not a lawyer, so I haven't been formally trained in
weasel-wording, but I think I can recognize some when I see
it.  Our Director tells me that "The whole purpose of
posting Contest Results on the Web site was to provide 
a more useful tool to contesters while addressing expenses."
If you read that sort of fast, it almost sounds like a good thing,
doesn't it?

Remember that thought I asked you to hold?  Keep holding
it.

Fast forward to a year from now.  Suppose that the BoD
has accepted and HQ has implemented the notion that contests
can be better reported on the ARRL web site.  Suppose further
that you are just newly interested in contesting, and deciding
where to spend a little money on a magazine which will support
your new interest.  You know that both CQ and ARRL sponsor
a lot of contests.  

Are you still holding that thought?

OK, here's the quiz.

Will you:

  1) Join ARRL to get QST, and get CQ scores from your buddy who
    subscribes.

or.....

  2) Subscribe to CQ and get your ARRL contest info for free off the
   ARRL web site.

With all kind regards,

de Hans, K0HB


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