[CQ-Contest] A new "DX cluster" experience for contesters

[Zack Widup]

Yeah, but the thing is, in the case of the slow poke sailboats, they do
nothing to contribute to the possibility of winning by the power boat. Ham
radio contests are one of the few (maybe the only) activities where one's
score improves as he also improves others' scores. It's just a matter of who
can improve the most other people's scores the fastest.

I just saw that the CQWW contests of last year had 12,000 entries. No doubt
a goodly amount of these were by the slow poke sailboats. What if all of
these gave up and quit contesting? I am one of those slow-poke sailboats and
I have a feeling I might end up quitting if the fun gets taken out of it for
me.  What would a major contest be like with 200 entrants?

Maybe I'll just stick with VHF/UHF/microwave contesting. I don't see any of
these changes in technology being discussed affecting those in the
foreseeable future.

73, Zack W9SZ

On Sat, Apr 17, 2010 at 5:43 AM, K1TTT <K1TTT at arrl.net> wrote:

> The problem is pete, that since in our contests all those different entry
> classes are running at the same time on the same lake people get confused
> and think they are a sailboat competing with a power boat... where the
> power
> boat operators usually ignore the slow poke sailboats and just watch each
> other.
>
>
> David Robbins K1TTT
> e-mail: mailto:k1ttt at arrl.net
> web: http://www.k1ttt.net
> AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://dxc.k1ttt.net
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Pete Smith [mailto:n4zr at contesting.com]
> > Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2010 10:36
> > To: CQ Contest
>  > Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] A new "DX cluster" experience for contesters
> >
> > In the 19th century, mechanical propulsion largely replaced sail as the
> > motive power for commercial and military ships.  In the 20th century,
> > internal combustion engines and the invention of the outboard motor made
> > it possible to dispense with sails and oars on almost all vessels.
> >
> > Yet sailboats and rowboats persist today, and are a source of great
> > pleasure for millions.  Intense and popular competitions among both
> > types of vessel take place frequently and attract millions of
> > enthusiasts world-wide.  At the highest level, sailboat competitions
> > such as the America's Cup involve use of extremely advanced technology
> > on the non-propulsive side of the bright line defining the sport.
> > Competitions among powerboats occur too, from small outboards to boats
> > powered by huge gas turbine engines.
> >
> > I hope my point is obvious.
> >
> > 73, Pete N4ZR
> >
> >
> > On 4/17/2010 4:00 AM, Christian Schneider wrote:
> > > VE5RA wrote:
> > >
> > >> So begins the 'age of the robots'.
> > >>
> > > But it will be only one more of those smaller and bigger steps in the
> > > development - applauded as keeping up with progress and maybe gaining
> > new
> > > blood. Will it be two or three years that the first M/M-stations "man"
> > their
> > > 160m-station during daylight and 10m during nighttimes with a
> qso-robot?
> > Or
> > > is this already done? Given the ingenuity on the software side it may
> > take
> > > "only" some combining of decoding-technology with expanded ESM-routines
> > of
> > > existing contest software. Initial stumbling may be irrelanvant with
> the
> > > rates at that time and allow refinement to adjust it for coming things.
> > > An(y) operator will be present in a(ny) room there.
> > > This becoming more widespread it will earn the ususal criticism by
> > > irrelevant small guns refuted with the argument they seemingly still
> > want to
> > > operate with a straight key. With becoming more widespread even some
> > bigguns
> > > may feel bored but won´t dare to utter it publicly in the presence of
> > > chestpounding colleagues.
> > > Acting may begin [IRONY ON] if more bigguns get fire from XYLs because
> > they
> > > unintentionally checked the ECAR-box ("effective contest analyzing
> > routine")
> > > in their software which starts at 0001 after the test and ordered the
> > OH8X`
> > > 3-ele 160m-beam (flawlessly interacting with the online-banking
> > software)
> > > because there were three unworked skimmer spots from Africa on that
> > band.
> > > [IRONY OFF].
> > >
> > > Disclaimer: This is NO condemning of the technology itself. It is kind
> > of
> > > sorrow that this blending taking place in smaller and bigger (i.e.
> > skimmer)
> > > steps changes the flavour of the hobby substantially. At some points of
> > > blending wine with pepsi it detracts some from it but of course may
> > attract
> > > new consumers. Again: Like skimmer all this is tech-wise interesting
> > and,
> > > yes, also fascinating, but at the same time somewhat saddening. Like it
> > or
> > > leave it, I know and will do. We´ll only have some rule debate, some
> > rule
> > > changes and may be some more retreats as far as "unassisted" is
> > concerned.
> > > Not much more to do.
> > >
> > > Of course you are free to denounce this as "whining" - if you also
> think
> > > that a marathon-runner is techwise backwards only because he is
> > fascinated
> > > by the techwise less effective way to span 42,5 km.
> > >
> > > Best 73, Chris
> > >
> > > (www.dl8mbs.de)
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > > CQ-Contest at contesting.com
> > > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
> > >
> > >
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>
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