[CQ-Contest] What is Multi to you?

[W0MU Mike Fatchett]

Why can't contesting be both.  A place for friends and novices to get 
together and have a good time and have a chance to do well and feel like 
you have a chance to win.  How many people really have a chance to 
really win?  Very few.  It used to be you could go down to the Caribbean 
with a FD style setup and win.  That is very very difficult now with the 
Multi stations with 8 rigs, multiple 100 ft towers etc.  I applaud their 
dedication, time and money to build great stations but there is little 
competition.

If golf if you participate in a tournament (contest) you are allowed to 
get a handicap which while certainly not perfect is an attempt to level 
the playing field so that you can feel like you have a shot.  There are 
always going to be talented people that most likely can win but in golf 
anything is possible as everyone plays the exact same course on the same 
day.  In contesting we have a bunch of golf tournaments going on all on 
separate courses and then we crown a winner when none of the courses are 
the same.

The goal here is to attract new people. I applaud those that continue to 
work on personal goals.  You cannot sell that to new folks and to the 
younger generations.

W0MU


On 5/10/2017 9:28 AM, Tony Osman wrote:
> Gerry
>
> I am enjoying this thread and listening to the various arguments. I 
> have participated in all entry classes in CQWW  (with the exception of 
> QRP) and I have enjoyed them all. I do find that multi-single (when 
> keeping to the rules) is one entry where you can have other operators 
> manning the multiplier station who are guys newer to contesting and 
> could be intimidated by the abilities of others to run at high rates, 
> but know that they are fully participating by finding new mults.  It 
> is a good opportunity to bring someone into the contesting game.  Are 
> you going to win? probably not, but mentoring has its own winning....
>
> I am in awe of the guys who can sustain very high rates (running 
> 150-200 qs per hour as an AVERAGE!).  They have a special talent and I 
> can only wonder at it - the same as I wonder at golfers who can shoot 
> a 64 on a course that I shoot 64 (on the back 9!). It is interesting 
> to see some M/S QSO totals that are almost as high as M/2 (within 
> 10%). Participants in M/S can have advantages when a M/M station uses 
> its resources to supply many more multiplier operators, but I doubt if 
> this has anything like the same advantage that the geographical 
> advantage has - 3 point vs 2 point per QSO.  The running station still 
> has to make a very large number of contacts and yes, if you have 
> multiple people of the same high skill level available, they are going 
> to be able to run faster for shorter periods of time than the 48hr 
> marathon, but that is just the nature of the team and the category.
>
> However, none of this does not stop me from competing.  My goal is 
> always to beat my personal best, in this I am competing solely against 
> me, the same station, the same antennas (mostly) but each time a year 
> older!  I also enjoy team competition where I no longer have to try 
> and stay the full course and  the camaraderie for the weekend is even 
> better than the actual contest (well - almost).
>
> I also remember that this is not my livelihood but a hobby. So I will 
> be happy to have a beer with you and Yuri at Dayton too!
>
>
> Tony
> VE3RZ
>
> On 5/10/2017 9:02 AM, Gerry Hull wrote:
>> Hi Yuri,
>>
>> No offense taken.
>>
>> Take the NASCAR analogy.   Yes, I expect people to push the rules -- 
>> like
>> they do in car racing.   When they found certain techniques were causing
>> completely out-of-bound results, they reigned in the rules.
>>
>> My point of view is yes, an 8-station M/S certainly is advancing the 
>> state
>> of the technology art -- and I have no problem with the people doing 
>> it, in
>> fact I'm in awe from the technology perspective..  However, what is it
>> doing for contesting overall?   Maybe I'm a bit too altruistic.    If 
>> the
>> three or four stations worldwide who use this technique dominate M/S for
>> many years to come, what have they proven?   That they can win by 
>> pushing
>> the rules to the absolute limit.  There is inherently nothing wrong with
>> that -- that is part of what competition is.
>>
>> What does it do to participation in the category is another question
>> completely.
>>
>> I can argue the same point about remote:  So far, in general, it have
>> proven a challenge to generate the same level of scores from a remote as
>> you can from being on location.  As skills and technology improve, I 
>> think
>> you will see this change.  The ability to put rare multipliers on, 
>> and, the
>> ability of contesters to come back into the fold (who are QRT in
>> covenant-restricted QTHs), I would argue, has huge benefit to all the in
>> the contest community.  Just ask a lot of contesters in southern 
>> California
>> or Florida.
>>
>> The purpose of this reflector, hopefully, other than a bitch session, 
>> is to
>> express ideas.  Let's continue the discussion.
>>
>> Yuri, we can talk about it more over a beer in Dayton...
>>
>> 73, Gerry W1VE
>>
>
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