[CQ-Contest] Re: Why not complain about CQ also?

[Gerry Maira]

> Message: 7
> From: "Lee Hiers, AA4GA" <aa4ga at contesting.com>
> To: Cq-Contest <cq-contest at contesting.com>
> Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 15:26:10 -0400
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Why not complain about CQ also?
> 

> I would say that it gives reason for concern for
> ARRL's continued sponsorship of contests,
> possibly even their support of contesting as an
> allowable activity on the bands - I would not be
> surprised if they proposed a rules change to the
> FCC which would prohibit contesting - if you
> boil it down to membership numbers, I'm sure the
> majority of members (not active $-spending
> members, just numbers of members) would support
> total elimination of contesting.  It's only a
> matter of time.

Bingo! Someone is finally catching on. The ARRL won't so far as trying to prohibit
contests, but they are distancing themselves from them. The exception is the non-contest
field day exercise which is still good PR for the league.

I just started out in contesting about 2 years ago. One thing that helped spark my
interest was seeing ARRL contest results in QST. Seeing the results there also gave me
added incentive to try for more points. It won't be quite the same without results
published in QST. NO ONE is going to take the trouble to look at scores on the ARRL
website except for participants. In QST it's right there in front of you and easy to
look at. The same is true for section news.

I ended my ARRL membership as of 1/02 for reasons that had little to do with contesting.
I was amazed at the number of form letters they sent me trying to get me to renew. They
basically said I wasn't doing my part to help protect Amateur Radio by not supporting
them. The fact is, I need protection from the ARRL! I'm a CW operator, a DXer and a
contester. Those are my main activities in the hobby, and each of them requires some
degree of skill. Each has also suffered to some degree by the actions of the ARRL -
especially CW. They ARRL doesn't want to turn off any of the new instant gratification
folks by requiring or promoting anything that requires skill. Articles on things like
how to properly type a URL in order to access a website, or specials like the "ugly
shack contest" are what they think are appropriate now. They say we need more licensed
hams and ARRL members in order to fend of the evil threats out there. Bunk! The threats
are minimal and I would think almost non-existant on HF. We don't need more than a few
hundred thousand licensed hams in this country to keep the hobby going. Dumbing down has
only lowered the integrity of the hobby, and that's the thing the ARRL should be most
concerned about. They sold us out!

Gerry KA2MGE