[CQ-Contest] CQWW madness

[Jim George]

What I'm going to say doesn't appeal to me personally, since I contest as 
an S/O CW operator without Internet in the shack, but if we are going to 
make radiosporting interesting to young people, future radio contesting has 
to be all about the Internet. That will mean real-time scoring, photos of 
competitors in action, screen-shots of stations and antennas posted, the 
use of data bases to make the progress of the competition interesting in 
real time. In addition, remote operation options are going to have to be an 
essential part of any planning since more and more people, plus the youth 
in particular, are not going to have access to a station that will provide 
them with a fun and challenging experience.

This Pokeman Go sensation is an indicator of the use of location and 
virtually-real emoji characters that could be used to make radiosporting 
more current. I'm not the one to come up with these features, but there are 
people in the gaming industry who can. Some sponsor should cooperate with 
state-of-the-art video technology and define a competition that is 
thoroughly based on location and real-time interactions. The participation 
numbers of our sport are peaking now, but in twenty years, with 
restrictions on antennas and more crowded housing development, plus the 
aging of the ham radio population, the writing is on the proverbial wall.

Jim N3BB

At 10:23 PM 7/23/2016 -0400, Jeff Clarke wrote:
>Since a "fair" worldwide DX contest isn't realistic then get rid of all 
>the awards for World and Continental winners. Breakdown all the 
>leaderboards and awards by regions. The current leaderboards aren't really 
>relevant because it's like comparing apples to oranges.
>The "haves" are always going to shoot down any ideas that others have anyway.
>
>Truthfully this whole discussion will be irrelevant in 10-15 years anyway 
>since we don't attract much youth in our hobby and our "radio contesting 
>game". Sorry to be so pessimistic but that's the reality. Enjoy it when 
>you can!
>
>Jeff
>