[CQ-Contest] Contest bashers

[Alan Zack]

The CQWWDX has just ended and already a bunch of good old boys are in a 
round table bitching about the contesters.  Beside bashing the 
contesters they are giving each other advise on how to reset their 
clocks and watches from Daylight Savings time back to Standard time.  A 
real bunch of technical whizzes who are really making the best use of 
ham radio discussing what watches and batteries are sold at Wal-Mart.  
The sad thing is they seem to delight in getting on their favorite round 
table freq and crank up the power to QRM the contesters stealing THEIR 
frequency.  Someone popped into their conversation and asked why not 
grin and bear it for a few weekends a year or use 17 mtrs instead of 20 
mtrs for their round tables during contest weekends.  Of course they 
blasted the poor guy and off he went.  Contest do have a positive effect 
to ham radio, they sharpen our operating skills, you learn geography, 
and you learn to operate your rig to it's fullest design functions and 
keep your antennas in the best of shape.  I can never see myself sitting 
back in an easy chair broadcasting for 5 or 10 minutes non stop to my 
little group of radio friends about my health concerns, my broken cars, 
my weather, or my hound dogs as these guys do.  But if that is what they 
like then it's OK, but don't try to spoil the fun for the contesters.  
What irks me is that they enjoy finding a pile up working a rare DX and 
park on top or right next to it just to QRM them damn contesters.