[CQ-Contest] WSJT-X For contests - Dry Run

[Jim Brown]

On 10/23/2018 1:50 PM, Paul O'Kane wrote:
> It seems to me that any mode that is not and can not be decoded by 
> individual
> contesters (people) in real-time does not truly represent amateur radio.

That's pretty narrow-minded. Ham radio started with spark and every ham 
building 100% of their own kit. That's REAL ham radio! 100 years later, 
ham radio is a lot more. It's FAR more than contesting. It would be 
interesting to know how much of their own stations (or even a club 
station) so-called top contesters have built. THAT'S as much a part of 
ham radio as the transmission mode.

I started contesting in 1955, when we sent with bugs, logged and checked 
dupes on paper. Rigs were separate TX and RX, TX was part home-brew, 
antennas were home brew. Is THAT real ham radio? In the '60s, when I was 
able to buy a used rig that could work SSB, migrated to a keyer/paddle, 
and in the next ten years or so, was thrilled to buy my first AEA memory 
keyer that could remember and send serial numbers.

I was off the air for most of several decades, running my own small 
engineering biz and otherwise having a life. By the time I got back on 
the air in 2003, we logged, checked dupes, and sent CW using computers, 
and called CQ on SSB using voice recorders.

Through the next decade, RTTY contesting became popular, as did SO2R 
operation. Contesting became increasingly a matter of stretching the 
brain. And if that wasn't enough, someone thought of the Sprint format, 
eliminating the practice of running, and stretching the brain to the 
breaking point! I'd be interested to know how many contesters do any of 
this without a computer.

I DO know top contesters who have designed and/or built most of their 
own stations, either individually or as part of a group, although I can 
think of only a few who have designed and built any of their own kit, 
and I can count them without taking my shoes off. On the other hand, I 
know high-scoring contesters who are appliance operators, not knowing 
which end of soldering iron to pick up or how any of their kit works.

73, Jim K9YC