[CQ-Contest] WSJT-X and Contesting

Fri Dec 7 23:17:37 EST 2018

Paul, you have missed my point, deliberately or otherwise.

 Not all boat races are between sailboats.

In the beginning boats were driven by oars, and there were boat races in
which oar-mode boats competed with other oar-powered boats.  There still
are such contests, popular especially in colleges, and methods/hardware
continue to be refined, without a whiff of sails.

Then sail-driven watercraft came into being, and there were boat races in
which sail-mode boats compete with other sail-powered boats.  Such contests
continue, do not have a whiff of engine power, and their methods/hardware
advance aided by computer-aided design and other science.

Then dawned the era of motorboats, and there boat races in which
engine-mode boats compete with other engine-powered boats. Their segment
also continuously advances techniques and hardware, often borrowing ideas
from non-boating sources, such as race car engines.

None of these modes of contesting compete within the other modes, and non
is intrinsically “better boat contesting” than any of the other.

It’s all good.

And so it is in amateur radio.

There is a broad spectrum (pun intended) of contesting modes from “Just a
Boy and his CW radio” like me, to computer driven “what the hell was that
noise I just heard on 40” modes.  We don’t compete with each other across
mode boundaries, but within our chosen modes we have demonstrated a
continuing habit of “advancing the state of the art of Radio” (here in the
USA our government charges us to do so.)

It’s all good.

73, de Hans, K0HB
“Just a Boy and his Radio”™

So as the technology of boating advanced, new modes of boat racing evolved
and those new contests were distinct and did not compete with legacy

On Fri, Dec 7, 2018 at 08:14 Paul O'Kane <pokane at ei5di.com> wrote:

>
> 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
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-- 
73, de Hans, K0HB
--
"Just a boy and his radio"™