[CQ-Contest] ARRL Field Day

[Tom Haavisto]

Hi Joe

I am sure that for most of us here, someone can be within .5 kc, and
we will understand them well enough to get the  call/exchange without
having to use RIT.  If we need to tune him in, RIT and a few seconds
will do the job.  Granted, this skill did not come overnight, but my
questions is - just how do these new folks learn this skill?  FD is
not about rate - after all its not a contest - its about getting on
and having fun.

Do I expect every newbie to go through the same learning curve I did?
I sure hope not!  I had a lot of failures along the way.  At the same
time, I really have to wonder though - are we *really* making things
better for newbies by taking away every avenue of failure we possibly
can?  We need them to get on and make a few QSO's, and show them the
right way to do things.  Will they screw things up?  Absolutely, and
that is to be expected.  At the same time, I figure it is more
important to keep reinforcing the positive aspects of what they are
doing right and not focus so much on what they are doing wrong.


As a line in a movie said "Why do we fall?  So we can learn to pick
ourselves up again."

Sure - making QSO's is important, and also knowing how to *find*
stations to work, tuning them in (however painful that may seem), then
getting the reward of a QSO for their efforts - that has to make it
just that much more rewarding.  I guess the "Let someone else find 'em
for me so all I have to do is point and click" aspect seems just a tad
TOO easy.  What happens when they don't have any spots to work?

Just something to consider.

Tom - VE3CX



> I can not say how many times i have just cringed listening to a newby
> tuning is someone on SSB.  Where we experienced folk tune and in 0.5 sec
> are right on,  they ever soo slowly creep along and of course pass being
> right on, and than start to creep again the other way and again
> overshoot.  maybe two or three minutes later they are finally withinn
> .5Kc of being on freq, and are now trying to call the person.
>
> where with a good program they see a new station,  and click  wham bam
> right on freq and ready to yell at them.