[CQ-Contest] Skimmer as technology

[Art Boyars]

Not that I really care about the issue, but in the discussion here about Skimmer W2UP said "There's no question the forward march of technology cannot be stopped."

Yes, we contesters really have insight into how technology will affect our hobby.  As I posted here on Feb 3, 2004, about reading old NCJs: "In the Jan/Feb 1989 issue WB0IKN and NI0E say that computer logging is good for DX contests, but they recommend against it for SS."

And I recall a note in an old, old W1MX logbook: "That RAC really gets out!"  RAC = Rectified AC, which, apparently, was a technology upgrade for straight AC on the plates of the CW transmitter, which itself was an upgrade on spark (recall that some of the stations in ARRL's first trans-Alantic tests were using spark)...  except even then some guys did not believe in the newfangled stuff.

Just some reminiscence -- backward and forward -- about technology.

73, Art K3KU