[CQ-Contest] Observations of a young ham
Joe
nss at mwt.net
Mon Dec 19 14:08:16 EST 2016
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100WAAW
100 Watts And A Wire. More or less the tribander & Wires, class but no
Tribander.
Joe WB9SBD
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On 12/19/2016 9:31 AM, W0MU Mike Fatchett wrote:
> I think Dave and I are talking about MMORPG games with vast universes
> or country sides and very complex systems of combat and construction.
>
> I enjoy station building more as I have gotten older and doing it
> right. I agree that it teaches us many great lessons. Many online
> gamers have built their own gaming computers or rigs and tweak them,
> over clock them and understand that part of the game far better than
> many. No they are not building their gaming environment. So do but
> most are just playing on a system built for them.
>
> In America it is becoming more difficult to find ham friendly
> locations. We can thank a certain Florida Senator for not allowing
> some very good ham legislation from being made into law. :(
>
> Can we scale back the entry level "requirements" where everyone uses
> WRTC like setups for each contest? How many hear would operate a
> contest that way? Would it take away from the fun?
>
> W0MU
>
>
>
> On 12/18/2016 11:15 PM, Jukka Klemola wrote:
>> I beg to differ on at least the first count.
>> Online tictactoe on a 3x3 field does not match SOABQRPAssisted
>> skillset for
>> the guy who operates at home, using his own hand-made true
>> two-radio-station.
>>
>> No online counter strike competitor has built his own gaming environment
>> using hundreds of feet of cables and so on hardware.
>>
>>
>> Remember Twin Peaks, the TV series?
>> "Log says, things are not what they seem."
>>
>>
>> 73,
>> Jukka OH6LI
>>
>>
>> 2016-12-19 3:27 GMT+02:00 David Gilbert <xdavid at cis-broadband.com>:
>>
>>> I'm far from being young (I hit 70 this March), but as both a contester
>>> and a gamer I think I could add a couple of things to your list.
>>>
>>> 1. Online gaming is extensive. At any point in time you typically use
>>> more immediate skills than you do in contesting. I'm not at all saying
>>> that upper tier contesting doesn't require amazing skills, or that
>>> overall
>>> they aren't similar, but I think the breadth required every minute in
>>> gaming exceeds that of contesting. Just my opinion, of course.
>>>
>>> 2. Gaming generates far more participation than contesting. The major
>>> competitive games count their active players in the millions instead
>>> of the
>>> few thousands for contesting. That means people have more
>>> opportunity to
>>> enjoy the activity every single minute of the day. No waiting for the
>>> weekend, no dependency on propagation, no disrupting sleep patterns
>>> to hit
>>> prime time.
>>>
>>> 3. (Embellishment of your #6) Gaming is totally real time. You know
>>> exactly where you stand every minute of the battle/quest/whatever.
>>>
>>> 4. This one may be the most relevant, in my opinion. Gaming involves
>>> direct action/reaction against your opponent. It's constant
>>> move-countermove the entire activity, sometimes with literally
>>> dozens of
>>> overlapping actions/reactions directly against your opponent in real
>>> time.
>>> I can't think of any aspect of contesting that approaches this ... and
>>> trust me, I've tried to think up a format that would provide it.
>>> Somebody
>>> smarter than me needs to work on this. I'm pretty sure nobody would be
>>> doing online gaming either if they had to spend several hours
>>> playing more
>>> or less in isolation relative to their direct competition and then
>>> wait a
>>> few days before early results showed where they stood.
>>>
>>> I certainly agree with your comment about the visual aspect. There's
>>> really no comparison.
>>>
>>> 73,
>>> Dave AB7E
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 12/18/2016 10:42 AM, W0MU Mike Fatchett wrote:
>>>
>>>> I had the opportunity to talk to my son in more detail and ask him why
>>>> contesting does not interest him. Here is what we discussed.
>>>>
>>>> 1. Cost to get in the game and have a chance to win is
>>>> prohibitive. You
>>>> need a great station, land, etc to really win or compete. The playing
>>>> field is so unbalanced that it becomes a show stopper. For him he
>>>> has no
>>>> costs when at home. I consider my station modest with a 70 ft
>>>> tower and
>>>> land to put up Inv L's and full sized 80m verticals and some receiving
>>>> antennas. I could do more but we have horses and they need to roam
>>>> and are
>>>> hell on things in the pasture.
>>>>
>>>> 2. You have to invest a lot of time to get good. If he can not have a
>>>> really good station then why invest the time to get good if you are
>>>> not
>>>> going to be able to really compete.
>>>>
>>>> 2. The tools we use to contest, logging software, packet look like old
>>>> dos programs. He called them ugly and boring. He is used to amazing
>>>> graphics in games. I found this observation interesting. I feel
>>>> that the
>>>> tools we have are pretty good and give me what I want to see readily
>>>> available. I was not expecting this answer.
>>>>
>>>> 3. He is far more interested in using packet where he can immediately
>>>> chase things. Packet essentially gives him a list of things to do or
>>>> goals. It is more visual so more interesting. He thought that more
>>>> automated systems would be interesting. Young people and even us
>>>> older
>>>> folk expect things to happen much faster. They are the generation of
>>>> instant satisfaction and some of that even rubs off on us older folk.
>>>>
>>>> 4. Talking to someone over the airwaves is still pretty cool. You can
>>>> instantly talk around the world if the right condx exist, but we
>>>> can talk
>>>> all over the world with our phones so it is not as amazing as it
>>>> once was.
>>>>
>>>> 5. CW is interesting but he was surprised that we don't have better
>>>> code
>>>> readers. While he would like to learn the code time is once again the
>>>> factor. They have so many other outlets for entertainment that it
>>>> is hard
>>>> to find time for all of them.
>>>>
>>>> 6. Results take far too long to come out
>>>>
>>>> 7. He proposed that all participants use a scoreboard type
>>>> system. Many
>>>> of us have said this was something we need to do but have instead
>>>> met with
>>>> amazing resistance and a ton of excuses why people refuse to use
>>>> it. A
>>>> system where everyone can check it out and see what is going in in the
>>>> contest. We are back to visuals.
>>>>
>>>> 6. Playing radio in the car driving is fun because there is not
>>>> much else
>>>> to do but drive.
>>>>
>>>> 7. He has his general license but he does not have the technical
>>>> skills
>>>> or electronic knowledge to build a shack or decent station. I am not a
>>>> great teacher especially to my own kids so I take some of the blame
>>>> for
>>>> this but it is hard to teach people things when they don't want to
>>>> devote
>>>> much time to it. I feel a reluctance to even try to do something
>>>> without
>>>> having the proper knowledge. A far cry from when I was young and
>>>> tried all
>>>> sorts of silly antennas and projects that mostly failed miserably
>>>> but boy
>>>> did I learn from those mistakes.
>>>>
>>>> That pretty much summed up our hour long conversation and I am no
>>>> closer
>>>> to figuring out how to sell ham radio and contesting to them. I
>>>> hope some
>>>> will find this information helpful and interesting.
>>>>
>>>> W0MU
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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