[CQ-Contest] Packet

[Kelly Taylor]

Hear the one about the communist who won an economic-system argument with
the capitalist? Or vice-versa? Of course not. Nobody ever WINS those
arguments, except in the eyes of the like-minded. The best you can ever hope
for is to agree to disagree before the missiles start sailing over the pole.

Seems that's a little like this packet discussion.

I don't believe that you are an idiot/moron/loser if you use packet. If you
think that calling all the people who do idiots, morons and losers is good
for contesting, well...

Reality check, folks: contesting does not own the packet system! We can no
more order DXCluster to shut down than we could tell Verizon to turn off
their cell-phone network.

To the people who say packeteers are skill-deficient, I'd argue that someone
who is unskilled would do very poorly with packet. They'd be chasing all
spots like a rat in a maze. "Holy cow, it's noon and a VU has been spotted
on 160! Let's go get it." They'd sacrifice their 100+rate to go after a mult
that's either not there or likely going to come to them anyway. Doesn't
sound like a winning strategy to me, so why care about these folks? They
aren't going to beat you, particularly if you're as skilled as you think you
are.

Generally, rate is king. That's why CT's little "mult worth xx mins" shows
such little time when rate is high. But it also doesn't tell the whole
story: if you give up your run frequency to go chasing spots (90 per cent
are crap, anyway), you lose much more than what CT is telling you. You also
have to find another run frequency.

Packet is also distracting, and that makes your rate suffer, especially when
the spot pops up at the exact second you're trying to copy a serial number.

So if you're a top-tier contester, and you're watching packet (please, spare
me a rebuttal about that being oxymoronic), you have to pick your spots very
carefully. And if you are honorable and watching packet, you're in the
assisted category anyway, so you're not competing against the unassisted, so
why should the unassisted care?

Prohibit packet? You think that would work? The same way Prohibition ended
all alcohol consumption in the U.S.? The same way immigration forms that ask
if you're entering the country to smuggle drugs keep out drug smugglers?

Contests play to a wider audience than contesters. Let me make one thing
clear: THAT IS VITALLY IMPORTANT TO CONTESTING! Casual operators are the
bread and butter of contesting. Casual operators have more reasons than
competitiveness to want to use packet. Not everybody cares whether they got
their 299th country via a packet spot. If you keep calling these folks
idiot/moron/losers, then they'll simply work off their needs list and shut
down. Those stations who aren't on the needs list get no contacts. Or they
simply refuse to work contests. Who would want to join a crotchety old bunch
of cranks who call anyone who disagrees with them idiots, morons and losers
anyway? Contest activity declines. Is that what we want?

And, if you're tuning across the bands and hear a packet-inspired pileup on
a rare mult, are those with packet the only ones benefitting from the spot?
Glass houses...

Packet may not have been the greatest thing to happen to contesting, but can
the genie go back in the bottle? Generally, I don't use packet. Not from any
strong opposition to the technology but simply because I'm not interested. I
also don't care that there are some folks who are.

73, kelly
ve4xt

Without radio, we're nothin' but a bunch of amateurs...