[CQ-Contest] Pre-emptive QSLing - was:Contesters and LOTW

[Robert Chudek - K0RC]

Message: 4
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 10:18:22 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Steve Harrisonusa" <k0xp at dandy.net>
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Pre-emptive QSLing - was:Contesters and LOTW
To: cq-contest at contesting.com
Message-ID: <25341.64.223.94.79.1186755502.squirrel at mercury.dandy.net>
Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1

Not to change the subject TOO much; but this really got to me:

>The technology to do this has been available for years. Sometimes
>I just don't understand why the Amateur Radio Community often
>continues operating in the dark ages of communications (like
>using email "Reflectors" when "Forum Boards" are so much more
>efficient and organizationally useful).

Personally, I positively, absolutely HATE "forums". I belong to as few as
possible and hardly ever frequent the few to which I belong. As far as I'm
concerned, html e-mail and "forums" are the two largest bandwidth-wasters
around. Plain-text e-mail and plain-text e-mail reflectors, OTOH, are
efficient, consume little bandwidth, make it really easy to archive
information of interest, and do the job of commuicating with others very
admirably without tossing in all kinds of endless bells and whistles for
which I never asked and have little or no use.

Steve "Dinosaur" K0XP

- - - - REPLY FOLLOWS - - - -


So Steve, I take it you still watch Black & White television, use a rotary dial telephone, and will be throwing the harness on the old donkey to ride into town to get some ice for the icebox ?  :-)

Personally I am against "plain text" anything. COLOR and fonts transmit context and meaning within messages.

When I was in sales during the transition of computer monitors from monochrome to color, many clients felt color was unnecessary. Or it was an expensive luxury. I always looked forward to those comments. It was my opportunity to ask that person if they would like to try an experiment. I would sit them in front of a monochrome monitor and have them play the popular solitaire card game. The result was always the same... the game went very slow, recognizing and placing cards was tedious, and the process was prone to making a lot of mistakes. It only took a minute for the 'player' to recognize what I was telling them about the significance of color in our lives.

In general, most people don't realize how conditioned we are to recognize the card suits by their colors. My 'experiment' showed them how a person could be more productive with a color monitor.

'Change' is difficult for the majority of people (including me). But can you believe there are folks out there still using DOS computers for contesting? [That ought to fire up some remarks!] I am resisting the new Vista operating system. The thought of using Vista pushes me out of my comfort zone, knowing everything will work when I turn on the radio & computer.

That said... the thing that DOES drive me nuts are the insistent, flashing ads on the QRZ.COM website and those crazy triple 'dancing' people, geckos, or aliens life forms on the mortgage ads! ...there otta be a law about this...

73 de Bob - KØRC in MN

P.S. I would convey my overall attitude of semi-humor in this message by inserting a pretty, colored, animated 'emoticon' right here, but in this plain text venue I'm simply relegated to...  :-)