[CQ-Contest] Shortening the Contest(s)

[Ed Parish K1EP]

At 3/15/04 09:06 PM, Ellen White, W1YL wrote:
>I've been following the thread of this for some time -- in fact since my
>long-ago days of contest administration at ARRL Hq.!  It is far from a new
>topic.
>
>My dear departed family members (W1CW and K4OJ) would be prone to say you
>really want to make it shorter to make it easier to compete (and win). But
>then Bob, W1CW, used to say winning wasn't everything - but it beat coming
>in second!
>
>Is it possible you're all missing the real point.  There will always be
>someone coming along more physically able to handle the operating period
>(after all, the ARRL DX Competiton was two full weeks long!).  You're a real
>winner if you compete against your own previous results and top them.

With deep respect for you and your family Ellen, I think that the real point is that we need to get more younger hams interested in contesting (and in ham radio in general).  At some point, we were the younger hams in contesting and could do the 48 hours.  Now, many of us are aging and a comparative number of new and younger hams are not filling up the ranks, at least in the US.  If the contest is to be of us geriatrics, then maybe it should be modified in some way.  But I should hope not, for the sake of the hobby and for the preservation of the contest tradition.