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

[David Gilbert]

I don't understand your point.  The power boat versus sailboat analogy 
is a good one for illustrating the technology differences, but it falls 
apart when people start worrying about simultaneous competition "on the 
same lake".  Robotic QSOs  and assisted QSOsare transparent to everyone 
else ... they don't take up more bandwidth, they don't use a different 
exchange, and they sound like every other station.  The band is no 
rougher lake for the "sailboats" when the "powerboats" are on it.  I 
can't think of any reason why somebody would notice any difference 
during a contest if a bunch of other high tech stations were on the 
air.  What would make the contest less fun for you?  Why would you 
quit?  Who would you rather work now ... the 40m CW op at K3LR or the 
guy with a straight key and a bad fist that doesn't understand the 
contest exchange?

As long as the contest sponsors define sufficient entry categories that 
adequately cover the range of technical capabilities (and have 
reasonable means of judging adherence to same), I don't understand why 
we'd care whether technology opens up the game or not.  And for those 
who are worrying about cheating, I think there are older and bigger fish 
to fry, such as high power versus low power or single op versus 
quasi-multiop.

73,
Dave   AB7E



On 4/17/2010 8:16 AM, Zack Widup wrote:
> 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