[CQ-Contest] Beginner Flyer

[Stan Stockton]

Joe,

Amateur radio can be a pass time like playing solitaire on a computer.  It can be a hobby like building a model airplane....or it can be a game like any sport or activity that may involve more than one player.  While some may play games just for the fun of it or to get some exercise, most people keep score and compare to others - golf, bowling, volleyball, monopoly, football, basketball, baseball, bridge, etc. The list goes on forever and in every case you are trying to beat someone or everyone.  

Contests are similar to any other activity in which most people keep score.  You may try to beat your own previous performance, beat someone in your area or compete for the top ten or overall win.  You choose your level of competition and make it just within reach on a good day.  Wanting to do your best, in addition to improving your operator skills, you can also have fun doing what you can to make your station as efficient as possible and see the results of your work.  This is an area where amateur radio is unlike many of the other sports.  You can buy a new bowling ball or a new deck of cards or a new set of clubs, but for the most part there is little improvement that can come as a result of better infrastructure.  Better infrastructure coupled with improved skills makes a huge difference in results and is quite rewarding in sense of accomplishment.

If someone has any interest in counting countries, states, counties, etc, they will want to operate contests to build those numbers.  As for the  underlying purpose of amateur radio, observe the non contest operator at FD passing traffic versus a top notch contester and evaluate what the difference would be in case of an emergency.

73...Stan, K5GO





> On Jun 17, 2015, at 4:23 PM, Joe <nss at mwt.net> wrote:
> 
> I'm putting together a flyer that we can give out at club meetings, Field Day, any amateur event. It is to help try to get more people into contesting.
> 
> So I'm looking for ideas as to why someone should do contests.
> 
> Anyone?
> 
> Joe WB9SBD
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