[CQ-Contest] N6TJ AXIOMS OF LIFE

[Paul O'Kane]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "K1TTT" <K1TTT at ARRL.NET>

> Only if you consider packet spotting not a part of operating.

It may be what many contesters use, but it is not a part of
amateur radio contesting, any more than cell phones or digital
cameras are a part of contesting. It is the internet, a separate
wired professional communications technology, and the shame is
that it is used to replace RF in finding or facilitating contest
QSOs.

Of course, many contesters don't acknowledge this and just
keep right on using it - they think it is normal, that there
is safety in numbers.

> By now we are all aware that packet spotting exists, it has
> existed for many years, and it will continue to be a part
> of contest operating

The internet exists, it has existed for many years, and some
operators will persist in the pretense that, somehow, it is
amateur radio.  Worse, they are spreading the pretense to
new generations of contesters.

Once amateur radio contesting becomes indistinguishable from
or inseparable from the internet, it will have ceased to be
amateur radio.

73,
Paul EI5DI