[CQ-Contest] WSJT-X and Contesting

[Paul O'Kane]

In the world of sailboat racing, no form of mechanical propulsion
is permitted.  Why?  It's a self-imposed limit on technology, as
otherwise the activity "grows" or "advances" into powerboat racing.
That might well be progress, but not the kind that appeals to
sailboat racers.  They're an insular bunch of luddites, rooted
in the past, and K0HB can't stop laughing at them.

Here are some sailboats in action. They are propelled solely by
the action of wind, waves and currents.  They are stuffed to the
gunwales with advanced technology, but there's not a whiff of any
other form of propulsion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc5W0Fed6JE

Those indeed are K0HB's boats "which might sail at great speeds
above the waters."  They represent another "mode" of sailing, but
they are still sailboats.

In the world of competitive amateur radio, there appears to beno
limits, self-imposed or otherwise, on technology - even whenit
includes other (non-RF) communications technologies and utilities
- I'm trying to avoid the "I" word.

I like to think I have a long perspective on contesting, having
got my first CQWW certificate in 1962.  In those days amateur
radiowas special and we were special, the only individuals who
could independentlycommunicate with one another, worldwide. That
was the essence ofamateur radio - person-to-person communications
using ham-bandRF (our wind, waves and currents) as the medium.

The trouble is we're no longer special, because just about everyone
enjoys inexpensive person-to-person communications.  It seems to
me that, in trying to compensate for this sad state of affairs,
many of us are happy to embrace the internet (as if we invented it),
together with ever-more-advanced means and modes of communication,
including 100%-automated machine-to-machine contacts.

As contesters, and even with the best of intentions, we have been
seduced by technology to the extent that we no longer care about
whether we're undermining ham radio or "progressing" it into
something else.

In short, we have lost the run of ourselves, and someone needs to
shout "Stop".  Don't we have to do it, as no one else will?

73,
Paul EI5DI


 > On 07/12/2018 00:13, Radio K0HB wrote:

> In The Beginning there were rowboat races, and He saw that it was Good,
> because men labored mightily to speed across the wide lakes and oceans that
> He had created.
>
> And later, verily, behold that there were sailboat races, and again He saw
> that it was Good because men had woven great sails to harness the power of
> His  mighty windy breezes.  (Personally He preferred pulling an oar as He
> had learned in His youth.)
>
> Then it came to pass in due time that tribes of a far land held motorboat
> contests.  He beheld them diligently and found this also worthy of His
> blessing because wise and clever men had used their brains to conspire
> mechanical means to move faster and farther.  (Even though He personally
> could not abide the odor of the noisy machines.)
>
> And the diverse boatmen shared the waters, exuberantly running their
> contests in a spirit of harmony and mutual support.
>
> Then rumors were heard in the land that some men had devised a boat which
> might sail at great speeds above the waters.
>
> And it was all Good and maidens sang and rejoiced in all the lands
> roundabout.
>
> ......and there arose a great hew and cry from an Elder Scribe in the Fair
> Emerald Kingdom who declared it was all foul blasphemy because “any boat
> that left the water, or which moved without an oar was Something Else”.
>
> And there was heard great laughter thereabout and beyond.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Dec 6, 2018 at 15:48 Paul O'Kane<pokane at ei5di.com>  wrote:
>
>> As for "Get on board or be left behind", tell that to the sailboat racers.
>> Don't they know mechanical propulsion engines have been around for
>> 200 years?
>>
>> 73,
>> Paul EI5DI