[CQ-Contest] contesting in 10 years

[Jamie Dupree NS3T]

WM5R wrote about voice files and contesting:

>I remember the first several contests after WriteLog added that very feature,
>and the stations I heard using 100% recorded voice files sounded awful and
>did not win any contests.  I don't hear very many stations doing that any more.

15 years ago, not many people would have predicted that you could work a
CW contest without a keyer.  Using just a computer keyboard would have
been scoffed at, but now it's pretty common.

The same evolution is already taking place with voice files.  Listen during 
Sweepstakes and you hear lots of taped CQ's and exchanges.  The next
frontier will be running full contests with voice files.  It can be done.

In fact, check your log Ken.  We had a Q last year in the WPX SSB.  
My voice files work so well that I was running stations on 40 meters while I
worked you on the second radio S&P on 15 meters.  All of it on tape.

I especially find that voice files make SO2R much easier on phone, mainly
because the juggling act of two radios is made simpler by firing
recorded wav files...sort of like SO2R in CW. 

And people are moving beyond the robotic sound.  I've got 15,000 wav files
that now take up over 500MB on my shack PC.  I keep adding to it little
by little.  Your full callsign is one of hundreds at Writelog's disposal.

My mic stays unplugged and it sure is a lot of fun.  I often wonder...how
well would it do if I had more than dipoles in my backyard?  I think pretty good.

73 Jamie NS3T