[CQ-Contest] Tracing the Evolution of the Single Op and reading the tea leaves.

[Dennis OConnor]

Good description of contesting in the days of yore.  You forgot to mention the shack reaching a 100 degrees with tube receiver / transmitter..  And in my case separate VFO (tubes, natch) and a BC-610... Lotsa, lotsa, switches and knobs for a band change, or even a big frequency change... Shirtless and sweating in January...
  Then I got one of the early TO keyers, what a wonder!  No memories, but at least clean code <mostly> at 3AM....  It took some time to retrain the reflexes from 'bug" to 'keyer'... I recently played with a bug at a friends shack and yeah I can still do it, but I'll stick to my paddles and keyer...
  Funny how the dupe sheet and log that looked OK at 3AM looked so ugly the next day after the contest... 
  Sorry, but I like my SCP, I only get on during contests anymore so I don't have the mental picture of the active DX calls, there are a LOT more of them than 40 years ago, and there are many, many special callsigns just for events/contests, etc. that are not heard on a daily basis and often I am not even sure what country that is... The old brain isn't that nimble and while I may only look up at the SCP list one time out of ten Q's, it does help at 3AM... 
  <are there only 3 characters for that entire call?  {look up} yup!... sheesh..> 
  I gotta tell ya that a 3 character call throws me off stride every time...
   
  I don't have internet or even VHF dx cluster in the shack so my experience with assisted is nil... My opinion is that the contest sponsor should have an log checker or two planting spoofed calls onto the web and any that show up on the non assist logs should be grounds for a DQ...
   
  Lastly, I am a dinosaur that has been around awhile and I don't see the changing world of contesting with heavy computer use as being bad... It is evolution no different that the change from spark to CW, and from AM to SSB, and from RTTY to PSK...  The king is dead, long live the king... Adapting keeps me young at heart, if not young at arthritic joints...  Sorry, I don't long for the old days... The new radios are fantastic compared to what we used in the 50's and 60's...  Being able to hear the DX cq right back in my face between dits saves me time and aggravation... Being able to run at over a 100 calls an hour is lots more exciting than searching a smeared dupe sheet with bleary eyes...
   
  As far as computer "decoding" of CW calls in the future <near or far>, that will become just another entry catagory no different than M2 or SOA...  Old farts like you and me will still be able to enter as Unassisted, or not, as we choose...
  "Now, where's the belt for that spark gap motor, by gawd I'm gonna show them wide AM rag chewers how it's done by a real ham!"
   
  denny / k8do

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