[CQ-Contest] ARROGANCE AND GOING SPLIT

Sat Sep 1 06:04:14 EDT 2012

And we wonder why some people have a bad opinion of contesters.  
Fortunately, there are some at the elite level who combine skill, 
tremendous competitive spirit, and, dare I say it, humility.  I could 
name some names, but I won't here.

Just a couple of comments.  "Friend" Jim and I have never met, but my 
computer log shows 49 QSOs with ZD8Z, going back to 1990.  I'm sure 
there are more in earlier years.  I've been "getting out" in contests 
since 1954 and I stand by my belief that the people who get on for a few 
hours, or use contests to bolster their WAS and DXCC totals, are even 
more important to the health of our sport than the top few.  Bob Cox 
told me a few years ago that there were over 30,000 call-signs in the 
CQWW database from one year's contest - how many of those even sent in 
their entries?

Finally, and I think most important, I have never criticized those who 
choose **not** to use assistance such as the Reverse Beacon Network, and 
have consistently argued for maintaining the distinction between 
assisted and unassisted operation.  Those who wish to take either path 
should be free to do so, as long as they are honest about which they 
have chosen.  The technology is out there, the genie cannot be put back 
in the bottle, but it can be properly managed.  Learning how *not* to 
generate Skimmer spots, when you don't want to, is just another technique.

73, Pete N4ZR
The World Contest Station Database, at www.conteststations.com
The Reverse Beacon Network at http://reversebeacon.net, blog at reversebeacon.blogspot.com,
spots at telnet.reversebeacon.net, port 7000 and
arcluster.reversebeacon.net, port 7000

On 8/31/2012 3:38 PM, Jim Neiger wrote:
> I  sincerely appreciate  my friend Pete N4ZR's advice on how to 
> attract the casual Skimmer ops come Sundays.  Recently Pete called me 
> "arrogant", which, by any reasonable standards, I probably am.  But 
> still it was probably the nicest name anyone called me that day.
>
> A couple of quick comments, if I may:
>
> (1) As I sometimes say, "you need to get out more".  I do NOT always 
> end each QSO with my callsign.  I have three F-keys programmed:  
> CALL     TU dit-dit, and I use them all.   By the way, I don't use the 
> last nearly enough, but when I do, it's really effective and amazing 
> how the sharp ops in the pile-up pick it up.  Expect to hear more of 
> it from 9Y4W this November.  As to my sometimes rolling with just the 
> CALL, I learned that from my idol KH6IJ, and I can probably come-up 
> with a few worst standards to emulate.    It does three things:  (1) 
> acknowledge the QSO, (2) identification, and (3) QRZ?   And in these 
> days of too many going too long without ID, I'd  much rather have the 
> reputation of being "pile-up friendly".  Another thing I've learned, 
> the more frequent I ID, the bigger the pile-up.  It's an amazing dynamic.
>
> (2) At this stage of my contesting career, spanning I guess 57 years 
> now, I am definitely realizing my best years are in my rear-view 
> mirror.  But hey, at the (trust me, advanced)  age of 73, I was still 
> able to break the world record in last February's ARRL DX CW, but 
> regrettably came in No. 2 to my good friend at FY5KE.  The arrogant 
> side of me says:  "if you can do that, then please go out on the 
> DX-end and show us what you got".  And send me a post-card.  I've won 
> more than my share, and lost even many more than my share.  At this 
> age, I seriously couldn't care less if I ever win again, but thanks 
> for thinking of me,  Pete.
>
> (3) I don't know, in this world of instant gratification, everyone's 
> got an opinion.  It needs to be polite.  It needs to be politically 
> correct.  It needs to be tightly controlled.  If we're not employing 
> the latest technology, we're dinosaurs.  People do little to promote 
> what made DXing and contesting great in the first place:  OPERATOR 
> SKILLS.  Remember them? How to find DX. How to copy SSB and CW in the 
> most rigorous of communication environments.  How to to know where to 
> find whom and when. How to know who you can move to another band, and 
> when to ask.  How to beat the other guy out in a pile-up.  How to 
> listen, listen, listen.  What set us to be the Best in the World 
> communicators.
>
>  Did you watch the 1500M races in the Olympics?  You think these 
> (real-world) athletes are worrying about playing nice as they're 
> elbowed and jostled going around the track?  Uh, keep your elbows in?  
> Give me room. Don't go "split"??  NOPE.  And these are real athletes, 
> we're just amateurs.
>
> In my opinion, if you want to play patty-cake, get your wife to take 
> you to her Saturday afternoon tea party.  If you want to contest: 
> man-up.  This is serious stuff.  Dog eat dog.  Go split. Be arrogant.
>
> Vy 73,
>
> Jim Neiger   N6TJ
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Pete Smith N4ZR" <n4zr at contesting.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2012 2:11 PM
> To: "Ward Silver" <hwardsil at gmail.com>; "CQ Contest" 
> <cq-contest at contesting.com>
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Split operation in CQ WW CW
>
>> Hey Doc, that's fine if you take other measures to avoid being spotted
>> by a Skimmer, but if you're in fact being spotted on the RBN, doing that
>> will simply cause you to be re-spotted much more often than Skimmer's
>> normal 10-minute limit.  Talk about unintended consequences!
>>
>> N6TJ needn't worry - all he has to do is do what he's always done, end
>> each QSO just with his callsign.  Of course, he may miss a lot of casual
>> ops that way, but nothing's free in the Magic Kingdom. Perhaps, dare I
>> suggest, he will want to start sending Skimmer's key words on Sunday,
>> when things slow down.
>>
>> 73, Pete N4ZR
>> The World Contest Station Database, at www.conteststations.com
>> The Reverse Beacon Network at http://reversebeacon.net, blog at 
>> reversebeacon.blogspot.com,
>> spots at telnet.reversebeacon.net, port 7000 and
>> arcluster.reversebeacon.net, port 7000
>>
>> On 8/28/2012 4:30 PM, Ward Silver wrote:
>>> Dither your transmitting frequency, as well - move it back and forth a
>>> couple hundred hertz with each QSO.  Not so much that the pileup 
>>> moves with
>>> you but enough to spread out your spot signature.  Program it into a 
>>> macro
>>> key or something.
>>
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>
>