[CQ-Contest] ARRL Rookie Contest

[David Thompson]

I am always for leading edge and young rookies are ready for this type of 
contest.  Old timers with older rigs also like to work contests and are 
realizing that logging programs are far better than hand logging especially 
when recognizing dupes and multiplier needs.  However I see several 
problems;

The older rigs cannot be connected to PC control.  I have a Icom 740 that I 
use on 17 and 12 and so far there is no way to connect this.

True many are dial up and in the shack I have earthlink and the ISP kicks me 
off at times as I am not surfing the web.  It even tries to kick me off 
while I am doing e-mails.  I usually have 30 seconds to stay on-line.  I 
also have DSL from AT&T but even that is slow.  It is reliable but I don't 
think I would want to enter a contest using the ARRL or any host page.  On 
Saturday mid-day the DSL crawls.  One local went to a T1 service but at the 
cost of nearly $300 per month.

Many of the newer hams are 50+ types.  I would hope we don't exclude this 
type of rookie just because they are not tech savvy.

73 Dave K4JRB