[CQ-Contest] IRLP Contest

[Dale Martin]

> In a message dated 3/16/05 10:47:52 PM Greenwich Standard 
> Time, craig.n7or at gmail.com writes:
> The real truth seems to be that you really don't want any 
> newcomers. Keep ridiculing them, calling them "shack-on-a-belt" guys.
> We do want them.  Whenever I get in my truck and hit the 
> local repeater I try to talk up contesting and HF in general. 
>  I am pretty much met with apathy and an attitude that it is 
> better to sit and wallow on a 2 meter repeater than it is to 
> upgrade and get on HF or contest.
> 

Hey, Bill, at least you have some repeater activity there.  I'm continually
amazed to find Houston's repeater frequencies a vast wasteland of silence.
Even during rush hour, you're lucky if you can find more than 2 or 3
repeaters in use.  And this is a city of over 2.1 million (Houston
Metropolitan Area = ~5 Million) with an estimated ham population of over
4,000.  

Also, I stand corrected about IRLP being only accessible via radio.  I guess
technology has moved on since I last worked that 'mode' a year or two
ago--established and conducted an astronaut interview by Toronto Challenger
Center children).

73,
Dale, kg5u